Bad Apples
by Diluation
Summary: Gensokyo. A long forgotten place ruled over by the Youkai, with humans in the minority. The Last City. A desperate place where humanity struggles to survive under a weakened god, ruled by humans who worship it to no end. Two places so different, yet so alike. But what'd happen if they meet? Would there be peace? Chaos? Only time can tell such a fated meeting, as the exiled come.
1. Even In The Midst Of Flowing Time

Emptiness.

That's all I ever felt since I was left behind in the Vault of Glass. Ever since my teammates had left me for dead in Venus's future.

I had long since gotten used to it. Lying motionless on the ground before me as nothing else but a yet to be husk, as I waited in vain hope. My ghost and I rationed our light reserves, as there was no Traveler in this Vex future. Moss had ran over us both, as we laid there in vain hope of a rescue to never come. Moss that had grown as time flew us by.

Our words were always unspoken; not visible to us both either. We knew deep down inside however, what our conversations were. We had already spoken them, why we shouldn't just die, why they'd be looking for us, and our final thoughts in case we don't get out, and said them without having done such. It was our companionship in this never-ending silence. This never ending cycle of no future where I just stared into the sky, a vain hope of life in my eyes as my ghost laid beside me in a slumber I'm left to awaken him from.

Some would consider this cycle a madness. That we needed to keep talking as to not go mad. But what can a ghost and a warlock do, when they've had centuries to talk and wait?

I would've chuckled if I could. A maddening cycle for what was supposed to be mad. Yet, we could still feel our sanity. Sticking it out with us, as the clock stretches on forever. Our bond keeping it alive in mutual companionship of a future we wish for, as we flow along the passage of time.

And then the future came to us in the form of something unexpected.

A nightmarish portal opened up beneath us and immediately caused us to start falling, catching me by surprise. The moss desperately tried to cling onto us to prevent us from falling, but it was fruitless, as I thrashed about to quickly cover my ghost, who was yet to fully start up. Red eyes appeared all around me as I was falling into a seemingly endless abyss, twisting and turning until-

I landed on a hard wooden floor with a loud thunk, back landing first as the air suddenly left me. My HUD flashed red, my vitality signs having reached 25%. I attempted to get up, but hissed in pain from having laid back in total apathy for too long. Apparently, I needed to wait for my ghost to wake up.

"Yukari, I do believe I asked for a human. Not a moss covered mess." A young, feminine voice chose to comment, sounding somewhat miffed at me.

"It is, just covered up with some moss from where I found him." I heard the girl called Yukari say, as if unfazed. "Lemme remove the stuff."

It was at this point, I saw the blue light of my ghost light up, as if having sensed the impact. Upon seeing that we were somewhere other than the future, he immediately checked my vital signs, and, sure enough, a pulse wave of light went through me, my body getting set back in order and surprising those around me. I then did a kip, landing and standing straight up with my own two feet.

A small child with red eyes, short light-blue hair and a light-pink mob cap with a red ribbon decorated with white stripes stood before me. She wore a light-pink dress with a red ribbon on both sleeves, a large red ribbon behind her waist with white stripes and a necklace featuring a Caduceus-like centerpiece. She also had a pair of large black bat-like wings on her back with a wingspan wider than her height.

"Quite an unexpected entrance…" The girl made to comment, before shaking her head, giving me an almost conniving smile. "You there. You are to be my servant."

I blinked at her a bit. Then considered it by asking some meager questions, looking in the corners of my helmet's vision for any escape routes. I saw a window of opportunity, that of which being a literal window not too far away from me.

"Jump for it?"

"Sparrow ready to transmat on a moment's notice."

"GUARDIANS MAKE THEIR OWN FATE YA VAMPIRE WANNABE!" I let out in defiance and joy, sparrow instantly transmatting before me as I turned to the window. I pushed the pedal and started out in full speeds, as I reached the window, only to find myself stuck back where I started. I looked on in confusion as I reached the window a couple more times, getting sent right back to where I was before, until I suddenly ended up crashing into a wall inside of a dark room, bouncing back from the impact as the sparrow exploded.

"...Saga, what just happened?" I said, just staring at the wreck in confusion

"Who's Saga?"

I turned to look at the newfound speaker. A girl similar to the blue girl was standing behind me, exception being her hair was blonde, she had a spade tail, and with some kind of… jewel wings? I looked around for my ghost, finding that he had cloaked himself, before looking back at her. "Er, it's an AI in my helmet." I lied, figuring my ghost probably cloaked for a good reason. I then took my helmet off, revealing my human face. "Who are you?"

She seemed to stare in annoyance for a few moments before smiling. "My name's Flandre!"

"Nice to meet you Flandre." I said with a polite smile of my own "My-"

"Do you wanna play?" She asks, giving me one of those puppy dog-like stares.

Naturally, I resisted the temptation to agree. What sane man wouldn't want to just breathe fresh air right now? Sorry missy, but I got stuck in the future for hundreds of years, I don't care. "Miss Flan, while I'd like to, I kinda need to go back to my job of defending humanity."

She pouted. "Awww… ok." She pointed at me. "But you're not getting out of here. My sister had blocked the door."

"That blue-haired girl?" I tilted my head slightly to the side. "Why'd she lock you down… here?" I looked around, seeing nothing but a dimly lit basement. She must be horribly cruel to treat her like this… glad I dodged a bullet.

"Yeah, her!" Her eyes narrowed. "I keep waiting and waiting, but she never lets me out!"

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes for a moment. I then looked around, seeing nothing but a set of pillars to keep the place up and a doorway, a doorway behind me. The doorway itself lead into another room.

"Flandre, I think you've waited long enough." I then looked around for any sort of exit that I could use… or make.

She crossed her arms. "That's what I think too. But we aren't getting out of here."

"You can trap and block light all you want," I said, as my eyes settled on the staircase door. I walked to it, attempting to open it. Locked. "But we guardians find our way out. There's no truly stopping the light."

She tilted her head. "A… guardian?"

I looked to her. "Know where an air vent is? At least, an air vent big enough to insert a diamond shaped ball?"

"Guardian, I've already went through one. Making my way back to you now."

"Perfect."

Now she was only more confused. "You're weird. Well, there is a fireplace at the chimney." She pointed to a fireplace off to my left.

I moved over to it as to allow Saga to get a better grasp of my light, and proceeded to wait. Flandre looked on in confusion at my actions.

"You do realize that my sister will know? And that there's a barrier up there?" She pointed out.

I continued to ignore her until Saga responded again. Thankfully, not much time had passed until he notified me again.

"Ready?"

I took a deep breath, getting ready to stop my heart. "Always."

"Standby for resurrection guardian."

My heart stopped as soon as he finished, my light escaping my body. I fell to the ground, inert. My armor then transmatted, leaving only the necessary clothes on my body.

Flandre looked down at me in even more confusion. She placed a hand on my chest, waiting for the heartbeat that never came. She shrugged. "Well, it's free bl-"

I opened the door, interrupting her. "Said something about a locked door?"

She looked at me in complete bewilderment. I smiled at her, armor still on. "Life's a surprise huh?" I then pointed behind me. "Now let's move."

It was a few moments until she practically beamed at me.

Then she moved.

I had to move back a bit from the sheer force as she sped past me with a blur of motion, cackling maniacally as she did so. I looked behind me to see she was long gone.

"...Ok." I then looked for a window to dive out of. I found one a little ways away from me. I went to open it.

"You're not going after her?"

"She'll live. I'll just come for her again when I've had a bit of fun, and finding out where I am."

I then looked to my right side, noticing a weird looking broom girl with gold eyes and a witch hat. I pointed at her. "You saw nothing."

The girl shrugged and moved on.

I rubbed my hands and grinned, opening the window. The forest outside was a beautiful, bountiful green that awaited me, a mountain off in the distance for me to view the world around me. I took in the sights for a nice long while, having missed the normalcy of things.

The smell of air. I took a deep breath. "Oooooohhh... how did I FORGET this?!"

_"I'd share in it too if I had a nose." My ghost replies._

"So you're the one who released Flandre in my library."

I turned to look at the speaker, who had the same hat as the blue-haired girl.

…

"NOPE!" I shouted, as I did a backflip out of the window. Fate could find someone else, because this guardian ain't having it!

I ran, passing by weird looking butterfly people, who yelped as I ran by. I didn't pay attention to them in the slightest, just focused on escaping.

* * *

After 10 minutes or so of running, I finally stopped, panting from exertion. I looked behind me to find that I had lost the weird looking mage girl with the mob cap… if she even chased to begin with.

My ghost appeared before me, and he rushed to my waiting hand in a sort of high five as we both let out a cry of victory, enjoying our newfound freedom for a few moments. Then the situation finally hit us.

"Where in the Traveler's name are we Saga?"

"That's actually a pretty good question… think it might be too late to turn back and apologize, Daishin?"

"Yep." I then sighed. "Get his weapons out along with the sword. It's our only ticket to living through this."

Saga nodded, and a few moments later, Praedyth's Timepiece fell into my hands, and felt the familiar weight of Praedyth's Vengeance and Young Wolf's Howl on my back. Steeling myself for the unknown, and swapping to my solar light, I pressed deeper into the forest.

We walked around the forest for a while, ecstatic to have finally been able to do something new. Sure it wasn't Venus so we could get back to our ship, but it was something. Especially since we couldn't go back and fix things up with the blue girl and her crazy hat friends.

The place was massive, with no clear indicator of where to go other than the sun. It had a surreal feel to it, like no guardian had ever stepped foot here, no light. My ghost couldn't detect any satellites for us to navigate with, stating that there seemed to be some kind of interference preventing us from connecting with the world. Some kind of barrier.

It wasn't long however, until I finally saw some more strange looking butterfly people of various sizes and somewhat different shapes throughout the forest. Small people who called themselves fairies ranging from the size of my palm, to the size of a small child, flew about with butterfly-like wings on them. Some simply greeted me and called me a 'youkai', while others pulled quick, small pranks on me. They weren't particularly bothersome, but they would get stuff on my visor occasionally.

I had initially been cautious, but as they weren't particularly dangerous I simply acknowledged them and moved on. The antics weren't that bothersome, and I knew nothing of their population. For all I knew, this was a long forgotten place the Traveler had left behind, and these were amalgamations of light. Saga would have the answers in a bit anyhow.

I then encountered a fairy around 5 feet tall. I decided to greet her, since she was most likely going to greet me.

"I'm Daishin." I said, as I idly hefted my gun away from her. "What about you?"

"I'm Cirno!" She then pointed to herself. "The strongest!"

"...The strongest what?"

"The Strongest!" She replies with a tougher tone.

I blinked again. I then looked her over and decided to take a guess. "So you're like, the strongest fairy or something? What are you strong at?"

Crino just stares at me. "Strongest there is...at...all!" She says, getting a little too close to my personal space.

"I'd say she's probably a weightlifter that doesn't read books, but she clearly lacks the muscle mass…" Saga said to me via my internal comms.

"Right…" I said slowly. "So, uh, do you know where I am by chance? I just escaped this spoiled, cosplaying brat's mansion, and have no idea exactly where in the solar system I'm at right now. The place looks like Earth, but I could be wrong."

"Solar system, the heck is that?" She questions him while leaning back and look up in thought.

I raised a brow. "Y'know, a sun with planets revolving around it? You do know there is much beyond this world right?"

"What's a planet?" Was her response.

"By the Traveler…" I let out, pausing for a few moments. "Either I'm not on Sol anymore, or you must have some sort of mental problem. Do you at least know where we are?"

"Oh, yeah!" She points to the mountain top from where they were, apparently not having heard the word 'mental'. "You're on Youkai Mountain!"

Ah, that reminds me... "Yeah, what's that by the way? The other fairies were calling me one of those Youkai things."

"Uhm… not human." She sums it up easily.

I let out a small sigh. "Well, gonna have to clear it up." I took off my mossy helmet, revealing my face. "100% human, as you can see. Make sure others know that, ok? Cause I ain't no Exo or Awoken."

"...Exo? Awoken?" She repeats, the words are very clearly foreign to her.

I looked at her in disbelief. "Surely you know of the 3 city races that arrived with light and darkness?" I said, internally hoping that she was really that dumb.

"We couldn't have gotten teleported that far… right? I mean, this isn't Vex or Hive work here." I said to Saga in my internal comms.

"Only three?" Cirno almost criticizes with a matching look. "Right, human, weak…"

As I was about to shoot back at her with her lack of knowing the solar system, Saga responds back. "She might be right, guardian. I'm getting no satellites."

"What?" I said in disbelief.

"I just got bypassed the interference, and I'm saying there's no satellites!" My ghost almost yelled out in a panic."And these fairies clearly aren't something we didn't know about the Traveler, because I just scanned her and her biology doesn't consist of any light!"

"Sweet breath of the Traveler…" My eyes widened in shock and disbelief.

"Hey, are you there stupid human?" Cirno waves her hand in my face. "I'm still talking to you!"

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I narrowed my eyes and continued the conversation, intent on trying to figure things out. "Says the one who doesn't know about the solar system. You probably never even heard of the Light."

This very clearly upset her. "I know about light, sunlight, candlelight… uhm… Nuclear light?" She fails her arms. "That weird green stuff that's super hot in Old Hell, in that weird thingy!"

I raised an eyebrow, before sighing, deciding that wherever I was now, nobody had heard of the Traveler. "Not the natural light. I'm talking the Traveler's light, but clearly you primitive folk haven't been touched by it." He then crosses his arms. "Either way, I-"

"Primitive?!" Three… Two...One… "...What's that?" Three seconds of us staring at each other. "Wait, are you calling me stupid?!"

"And it took you that long to realize it, thus making my claim true." I said in response,giving her a professional smile. "Anyway, you know the nearest town? I need someone smart to tell me about society and its technological status."

"Grrrrrr…" She was outright shaking, going red while she glares at me. "Fight meh!" Apparently so mad, she had trouble speaking straight.

"I don't fight people without a weapon, mentally or physically. It's against guardian dogma to fight those without a weapon." I motioned to the pulse rifle.

"Baka! Magic, idiot mage!" Like some sort of malicious demonstration, she cups her hands and a large ice spike shoots out pass me, going into the ground. "Like that, human!" She says with a frosty mist flowing from her hands.

I felt a tugging on my light as she did this. It wasn't particularly strong, but it did seem to be doing something miniscule to it. "Is she… taking my light?"

"More like the heat from it." Saga quickly mentions. "It's not doing anything to drain you, but it's weakening the effectiveness of your abilities slightly."

Taking a mental note of it, I continued. "Miss, magic isn't real. You can harness energy, but there's nothing in the world like magic. Even Light and Dark has roots in science. That said, what are you harnessing to drain the heat in the vicinity?" As I said this, I slowly aimed the Timepiece at her.

She looked either completely lost or was ignoring him at this point. "Dodge! Hail Sign "Hailstorm"!" And with that, a cluster of icicles was shot out wildly, as she flew high into the air.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" I shrieked out in surprise, desperately dodging her attacks. A few icicles managed to hit me, quickly draining my shields down to half, and freezing the Timepiece in a block of ice.

Realizing the weapon was useless at the moment, I dropped a solar grenade nearby, and quickly rolled over into it to unfreeze the weapon. I almost fired at her, but stopped myself from pulling the trigger, in fear that I might kill her, and not find out the truth of things. The solar grenade only lasted for 3 seconds, destroying the icicles hitting the solar field before dissipating, leaving me exposed to the elements again, forcing me to desperately dodge her attacks.

"What the hell is that!? How are you flying without the light?!" I then pointed at her accusingly, as I weaved and dodge through the bullets. Thank the Traveler that I participated in territory battles!

"IdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiotIdiot!" Was all she was saying, eyes shut and arms flailing wildly, continuously firing. "Humans can do this too, idiot!" She was slowly getting her words under control, if out of smugness if nothing else. "You do it!" And she fires more barrages at me.

"I can only float in the air for a short amount of time!" I fired back at her, having gotten used to the bullet pattern. The 'magic' blasts were faster, however, forcing me to focus as I talked. "None of this is what the light is! And it certainly can't summon this much without serious consequences!"

"Guardian, from what I'm gathering in this, these 'signs' she speaks of must mean she's summoning a powerful attack. Keep listening to her."

"Gee, you fucking think Saga?!"

Her pattern holds, getting faster and faster, and forcing me to keep moving. I waited for a response, but the ice fairy didn't want to talk, seemingly focused on trying to stomp me out. Gritting my teeth, I summoned a firebolt, and threw it below her. She, of course, doesn't even try to dodge it.

"Missed me!" She mocks me, visibly getting less upset. And like a child, she doesn't let up the verbal knocking. "Missed me!"

As the grenade lands, solar light was released, a small radius of it passing around her. It then closes back to the center, and a beam of solar light launches at her, hitting her in the underside of her chin.

"Gah!" A crackling noise was heard, a circle appearing and looking visibly damaged. While she did move a few feet back, she didn't seem actually injured by the attack. However, the attack did go through her clothes, cutting it up through the middle.

I let up a bit, expecting her to have at least stumbled from the impact as I dodged the remaining projectiles. "Now will you let up a bit, and actually tell me about this 'magic' you have?"

Pouting, she crosses her arms. "Fine. Magic is… is just is! What you did works! It's not like it's going to kill you anyway!"

She really is an idiot. I thought to myself, before realizing something as I once again looked over her, realizing the damage done. Her clothing had now barely covered her body, a blue bra now visible underneath the clothing. Wait, how did the clothing get destroyed, but she didn't suffer any burns? This "magic" thing she speaks of is a load of cabal shit!

"Aw man!" With a shatter, the circle breaks and dissipates before a new one forms, the clothing fixing itself as well. It was a different circle, a minor difference but still the same. "Here I go! Cold Sign "Insta-Freeze Beam"!" Small clusters of blue balls were shot in faster and smaller sizes and kept at a circle barrier and pulsing forwards. Nothing too crazy, even the subsequent tri-beamed laser wasn't too much of a surprise,

Not intimidated at all, I casually moved around them, as I waited for another grenade, knowing it'd take me a while to summon another. I tried to talk her down during that time. "Look, buddy, I can only do that once every 30 seconds! I can't pull out icicles out of my ass like that!" I said as I dodged a stream of lasers aimed at me. "So no, I don't know what this magic thing you're talking about is, and I'd very much like some answers!"

"Magic is magic! What else? How do you not know about magic, everyone knows magic!" She says while sticking out her tongue.

"Well, I don't!" I said back in response. "And certainly not to the extent you do!"

She stares at me for a while before huffing and the circle vanishing. "Fine, I'll be nice and let you go… this time…" She glares with one eye open.

"Finally…" I said with an exasperated sigh, finally able to try the pacifistic approach... for the time being. "So, do you mind telling me how this 'magic' thing works? Because as of right now, it's clearly better than light, and I'd like to use it for the future fights I might have. Traveler knows what might happen to this place if the Vex get here and start playing with it..."

"On that note, guardian, I do detect residual 'magic' all around us. I think it might be like the light, where we need to draw it in somehow. She might know a way."

"I don't know. I just do it."

"Nevermind then. I guess it's just in her genetics to use this."

"Welp."

Sighing, I decided to go back to my previous question. "Do you at least know a place where I could learn it? Like say, a village?"

"Pfft, the humans there are even worse…" She then points to the top of the mountain. "You can try the shrine up there. There's a… Preeety? Preist? Priestess? Uh that, up there. She's a human and knows magic. And a…" Crino pauses for a second. "Goddess. Two."

I couldn't help but make a flat face. They probably just knew it instinctually too, and are just naturally powerful. And considering that The Traveler and The Darkness are the only actual gods, this is probably a native title. I mentally reasoned out her claim.

Deciding to not anger her again, and risk getting torn to shreds by a blizzard, I pretended to be set on walking to the shrine, making sure to turn around to look at her. "Thanks. Maybe you aren't that dumb." I lied a bit, before turning back around, not looking to see her reaction. As I walked, I looked back to make sure she wasn't watching or following me.

"Hey, where are you going?" She questions. Judging from her voice, she hadn't moved from her spot. Though what was very hard to miss was the long pause before her question.

"To find out about magic and learn where's the nearest human settlement. What else?" I responded back, confused about her sudden interest.

"Why though?"

"My job is to defend the innocent from those who'd wish harm upon them," I said back to her. "I don't care if they can't defend themselves for nothing. It's my job." Why is she following me?

"Oh, so like Reimu and Marisa?"

"Dunno who those are, but yeah," I said with a nod. "By any means necessary, I push back against the foes of humanity's enemies. And I most definitely need to learn this 'magic' now if I'm to pacify humans who'd rather hurt each other, much over for actually fighting the forces of darkness really..."

There was a scoff. "Danmaku doesn't really hurt…" I heard her mumbling. "And what are you talking about? Another incident?"

I gave her another flat look. "Light and darkness must've really not touched this world yet…" Shaking my head, I continued. "Well, let's just say I know a lot of bad guys that might come over here if they knew about this place. I'm just trying to prepare for them, and maybe bring the fight to them once I'm done setting up defenses."

"If you say so." She really didn't sound like she believed me on the whole 'outside forces to prepare for' bit, which didn't really surprise me. "By the way, Tengu live here. And they don't like outsiders. Just tell them you're going to the shrine and they let you through." She says as she gets ahead, showing that she was still flying. "Heck, I'll come with you!"

I blinked a bit.

"What's a Tengu?"

* * *

To say Remilia Scarlet was displeased would be the wrong thing to assume. In fact, she ended up being quite amused by the mossman's reaction.

Normally, she would've stepped in before he could run away after having witnessed him run out the gate, but it just seemed so… boorish to her. Unfair even, especially since the man moved at, to her standards, a snail's pace.

Yukari, after having stood by and witnessed it, apologized to her for such an inconvenience, stating she had recently found the dimension filled with the youkai-like humans the Hunter was from. She just cast her worries aside by stating she brought a good one anyhow, even with the minor damage done.

After she sent her off to find the human again, as well as the interloper she detected during that time, she looked to the woods for a few moments, muttering to herself. "Quite interesting…"

"Millady." She heard her head-maid Sakuya say, as she walked up behind her. "It is to my dismay that the human had managed to get away, despite being less familiar with the world than we are."

"He won't go far." She said dismissively. "He and his little diamond ball thing will come back on their own terms if they have any sense in them. After all, how does one expect to interact with the locals without having someone familiar with them?" She then smiled. "It's in their fate to do so. I don't even need to lift a finger for them to figure this out."

Sakuya nodded watching the forests whilst standing at Remilia's side.

"Still…" Remilia said aloud to herself, catching Sakuya's attention. "I wonder how he'll react to the local youkai? Some of them are known to eat humans after all."

"...He might survive."

"Oh?"

Sakuya stared at the forest with an intensity to her gaze. "He appears to be versatile in abilities. And the barriers didn't seem to affect him when he managed to escape, plus the hoverbike he had was decently fast."

"Are you thinking what I think you're thinking, Sakuya?" Remilia said with a knowing grin.

"...I would like to personally hunt him down and capture him, yes." Sakuya admitted. "If not to find out more about this human. He appears to hold prowess and technology that we have yet to achieve. And the mansion is in need of a butler."

Remilia hummed in thought for a few moments.

Then she grinned. "Go and fetch me the human, Sakuya."

Sakuya turned to look at her, surprise evident on her face.

"This so-called 'guardian' makes an interesting claim against me. That he can shape his own fate." Remilia said, taking a glass of blood wine from a fairy maid and sipping from it. "I would so love to see him try, if not to see him fall before me."


	2. Oppression Spins Round And Round

I ripped off the SIVA infected power coupling from the legendary heavy weapon I just scavenged, idly throwing it up and down in my right hand after having done so. "Nice and big, ain't it Vergil?"

"Size and requirements are a match as to what Aalek needed." Vergil reported, as he scanned the item. "Just gotta make sure a few more things are good…"

Me and my ghost here were in the now abandoned plaguelands, the Vanguard having deemed the place a lost cause once the city fell and promptly got back up after a few months. Which, in turn, had opened up more shady dealings to be done on the black market, specifically for a market in the SIVA-modified kind from curious warlocks and scavenging fallen houses, who were desperate to get their hands on the tech they lost. I'd almost pity the latter, if it weren't for the fact that the bastards were gonna infect the whole planet with their nanites. As well as take back the Traveler, but that was more of a side-mission to them more than anything else.

Of course, I didn't waste any opportunities during that time. Once the tower started to fall, I swooped in to steal the only Outbreak Prime, in which turned out to have replicated itself in Summer Rose's vault while she was gone. Dismantled one for the SIVA engine within and ran for it, of course, since her vault's remains were sacred to the city. It obviously wasn't much use, but any hunter worth his salt knew it'd become a bargaining tool for later. Said bargaining tool had even came into play recently, as my new clientele had requested for exactly that, as well as some minor things I wasn't really caring of.

It would've seemed dangerous to me if I looked at it with the eyes of a warlock I bet. What's a hunter supposed do though, if it isn't to spit disaster in the face and survive?

I got on the sparrow as my ghost transmatted the items into storage, revving up the engine of a 'truly perfect sparrow' as my boss so kindly put it to heat it up from the cold. My ghost turned to look at me. "You know, I never thought you'd be interested in this kind of stuff."

"And I never thought I'd get raised into a bunch of psychos who'd worship a ball." I fired back. "Your point?"

"My point is SIVA. You always had a distaste in nanotech, and had been wanting to get rid of the engine." The ghost said, moving next to his head. "Why are you helping this guy out beyond just dropping the Engine off and being done with it?"

"Just to see if it actually works." I said with a shrug. "I mean, its portals he's going for, right? If he can make portals to every planet, that'd make our dealings easier, and we'd be known as a reliable source of obtaining valuable materials. Best to get on with this loner while we can so we could benefit."

I then fired up the engine, and drove away from Giant's Rock, traveling through the Doomed Sea, inactive SIVA strands lying lifeless on the ground as he traveled along the coastline. The Plaguelands had been empty in spite of the fact the Vanguard had barred off entrance from any and all guardians. No surprise since the house there had better things to do with their SIVA than stay in one spot and fight guardians.

I hummed in thought. What were those maniacs planning to do with it anyhow? Make strongholds? Get away from this hellhole of a system as a new lifeform in the galaxy? Resurrect Kells and Primes?

I shook my head and laughed at the thought. Let the critters do what they wanted. Even with our own technology, they're not going to defeat humanity. Not that I say my ego is about the size of my privates. SIVA was made by us after all.

I made my way to Archon's Keep in a relatively short time. The SIVA mining drills had since been inactive when the Devils had left behind the scenes, but other than that the place had been the same as ever. Lots of lava, small fallen outpost, and the same ol' buried plane was still there around the pools and streams of lava. From where I was entering, I spotted two Barons the size of Archons at the entrance I was meeting my client at. I smiled, and honked my horn.

QUACK

I stopped a third of the way to the entrance to check my horn. "Oh yeah… I was in a quackfest the other day, wasn't I ghost?"

Vergil laughed as he materialized, getting to work on my horn. "Hope you ain't gonna ruffle your feathers over it," I groaned at that."But I only brought the clarion horn, bellow horn, and the house horn. Your antique horn is back home with your old sparrow, the one you got from Petra."

"Good ol' Velumbra needs some tuning too." I said with a nod. "I wonder what that girl is up to anyhow? I hadn't heard from her in ages due to the Red Legion and the places falling apart..."

With a resounding KER-CHUNK, I heard the horn get locked into place. I honked the horn again.

BBRAAAAAMM

My eye twitched in annoyance, as I looked to my ghost.

"Erm, sorry, also the Dramatic horn. I keep mistaking its data signature for the bellow horn…"

Once more the horn was replaced, but that didn't matter. The second blast had gotten the attention of the two barons, and so I merely drove up to them wordlessly. They prepped their weapons.

"Ikelos core, heavy power coupling, and SIVA Engine at the ready here."

"Password." The barons demanded in unison.

I sighed. "The Red Garden."

They let me pass, weapons aimed down to the ground. I drove into the keep, not caring for the mannerisms of driving in hallways.

The Archon's Forge was empty, no big surprise there. Same ol' rings of lava, same ol' closed domes with fallen signatures on them, and like everything else in the Plaguelands, dormant SIVA. Same thing with the little cave system that comes shortly after too, the Warrens or whatever it is called.

Really, they should just not make any note of these areas. Everyone keeps doing it though, since it is on the way to the real place of interest, Site 6.

I stopped at the entrance to Site 6, a small air vent hiding in a corner of the Warrens. I got off the sparrow and crawled through it, coming out into the fancy lab that comes before the destroyed replication chamber. Dozens of wires were behind the windows, some staircases and white SIVA symbols painted on the walls, scary stuff meant to scare normal guardians into running for help. No biggie though, really.

Talon, the client was standing a few feet away from where I landed. "You're here."

"So I am." I said, as I walked up. "You have my pay?"

An Iron Gjallarhorn materialized in his hands, and he hefted it to me. "Not perfect, is powered up by SIVA… I could use the Engine to further its capabilities, but it functions like the real thing and that's not what we're here for."

I smiled, as I caressed the fabled weapon, not really caring for his words. "The equivalent of 40 exotic heavy engrams in exchange for this shitty ass Engine." I then chuckled, as my ghost transmatted the SIVA Engine into his hands, as well as the Ikelos Core and power coupling. "My man, you practically gave me a steal. I'm feeling a little guilty."

"Progress has no material value." Talon said, as he checked the SIVA Engine over. "Oh you beautiful, divine thing… together, we shall recreate the golden age."

"Ahem." Vergil said, causing us both to stop. "While I understand guardians naturally fawn over the goodies… you guys are acting far too much like the hotshot on this."

We awkwardly cleared our throats, before I continued. "Right, lets see if this mad science plan of yours works."

"Agreed."

A sudden sinking feeling then became known in my gut as we pressed onwards. My hunters instincts were spiking, no doubt due to being in the presence of a warlock that was about to initiate experimentation. Yet… it felt worse somehow. And the hairs on my neck were standing, a sign that I was being watched.

My eyes darted around the room as we walked, occasionally looking behind me as well. A hunter should always listen to his instincts, as the Vanguard himself would say. Truth is sometimes they should, in this case I need to be here for when the portal thing works regardless. There was simply too much at stake here. I mean, what self-respecting man doesn't want to be seen as a contributor to this project?

Normally, I would've turned tail and left though in all honesty, cameras and all that. But the eyes… they were organic. Yet nobody was nearby. Not even when my ghost did an area scan of the room. And that was the most unsettling part. Because organic eyes means you can be tracked. And being tracked is the worst thing to deal with. I had to deal with that first before I decided to find a way to look like I was standing next to him, but was still far away safely from the blast radius that might happen.

The man was spouting some nonsense, how lucky I was to be part of this project, something about how I'll be a prime example of the pursuit of perfection, usual warlock bullshit. I wasn't really listening. These damn eyes were bugging me.

"Ghost, is there any light being used in the area?"

"Not to my knowledge no. Whoever is here has some really good jamming and cloaking tech… or is observing us through some other method."

"We are here." Talon announced, as I snapped my focus back into reality. What looked to be an inactive portal machine was off to the right of the hatch leading to the right of the replication chamber. It was rectangular in shape, and was a black empty frame with what looked to be energy conductors.

"This device is the portal. I have this particular one designated to bring us to the planet Venus." He then pointed at another object, one of the conductors from the abandoned fallen stronghold in the Plaguelands. "Go charge up the conductor with arc light. I'll be busy setting up the portal."

I nodded, and walked up to the conductor. I stabbed my knife into it and activated my arc light reserves, charging the machine. All the while I looked around me, my worry ever present. A good hunter doesn't get tracked for long if they do get spotted, knowing that they'd catch on. I am a renegade. I am a good hunter. And this isn't normal.

"What the hell is this?"

"Guardian, are you certain you're reading your instincts right?"

"I'm the best goddamn hunter the black market has to offer, Vergil. I know my instincts." I snappishly replied back. "Do you sense any Hive? Vex? I'm getting cold feet here."

"None that I can detect, no. There is an unusual fluctuation in reality though. Not a Vex or Hive "

Once I finished charging up the conductor, a process that was normally a moment felt like an eternity, I removed the knife, the conductor spinning up to produce SIVA charges. At the same time, Talon had finished his portal contraption, and was coming over to collect the charges.

"Quickly now!" Talon urged me. "The portal device needs energy in order to work. The faster we get done, the quicker history is made!" He announced with unbridled excitement in his voice.

"Yay, history…"

"Your lack of care has been noted, but I will let it go." Talon said, before he smirked, turning around and rubbing his hands. "Years of research, years of finely crafted victory… now leads up to this!"

I rolled my eyes, as I dumped the SIVA charges into the portal's compartment, causing it to glow with a brighter and brighter red as we charged it up. I decided to make small talk with the cilent to find out who the interloper may be.

"So are you or any of your buddies into Hive and Vex stuff?"

"A true servant of the Traveler does not look into either of those. Both roads lead into-"

"Yeah yeah, stop it with the copypasta already." I said with an annoyed sigh. "Look, is it a yes or a no? You're looking at the top smuggler here, no need to be shy."

"No."

"I'm asking because we're being watched."

Talon's face grew serious, and he moved away to play with some equipment.

"Hmmm… well there are some anomalies being detected. Nothing major though, probably the portal's doing."

"Ah!" I let out in pain, as one of the charges suddenly, and violently exploded in my hands, burning my two arms with electrified SIVA nanites. "Damn thing stung me!"

Talon frowned at that. "Bah! Dumb hunters getting me distracted, back to work!" He then grabbed one last SIVA charge and put it into the compartment with the SIVA charges, before proceeding to activate the portal. The portal glowed with a bright, eerie red static.

I bit my tongue back at that. Not my fault Cayde is the poster child for stupidity, as well as a lot of other hunters that outright insult the existence of warlocks and titans.

Talon fumbled around with the console a bit, rapidly pressing different buttons and button combinations to ensure it worked properly. The light of the portal fizzled, distorted even, until finally an oval shaped portal appeared before me, the lush surface of Venus visible before me.

My jaw dropped. I looked to Talon, who was still playing with the console. He didn't seem to notice.

"You think it's safe Kalmin?"

I looked at the portal. "Well, only one way to find out. He'd probably pull that same ol' 'I'm gonna use you as a test subject first.' thing anyhow."

"By the by, once I finish typing in the coordinates, I'll need you to go through the portal to test it."

…

"'Kay" Was all I said, as I mindlessly went into the portal. Fuck you too by the way Talon.

And that's when I got played.

What should've been the lush jungles of Venus, was a well placed wallpaper that looked like the jungles of Venus, and that I had stumbled inside of a portal with red eyes literally everywhere.

Nope.

I tried to back up, but I found my feet had no ground to walk on, and that I was falling away from the portal. I tried to jump back up to it using my triple jump, but it proved fruitless. I didn't even get close to the wallpaper, which had been ripped off and falling away from both me and the portal in a different direction.

Crap.

Well, only one good way to go out here.

"SCREW YOU TALON!" I cried out, as I fell into the abyss screaming in fear.

Falling down never changes.

* * *

Back in the lab, Talon had heard Kalmin's cries, looking up from his machine at the portal, which was still shimmering in a completely normal fashion. Talon blinked a bit, looking around to see if it was some mere trick of the light. He waited a few moments to see if the hunter would uncloak.

He never came.

"Huh." Talon said with a shrug. "Oh well, Osiris was pragmatic, and so shall I be as it is necessary!"

Little did the mad warlock know the harsh reality of the situation that would soon befall him, as the barons slowly snuck up behind him.

* * *

I screamed in fear as I fell for what seemed like an eternity, flailing about in desperation to find something to grab onto. Nothing came of it. Thoughts of everything I had done so far had come to mind, me wondering what went wrong as my lives flash before my eyes. And then I came to a sudden realization, which stopped my panic.

I had been falling for 2 minutes straight in some sort of spacey area with eyes.

Or rather I was floating? It was hard to tell. Everything looked the same here.

"...Ghost, are you here?"

"Yes actually." Vergil said with a smug tone to his voice. "It was honestly quite amusing to watch you act like such an idiot, wallpaper notwithstanding as I didn't think of it either until I saw you fall through and rushed after you."

"Har har, you're an idiot too by the way for following." I said sarcastically. "Where in that ball thing's name are we?"

"I don't know." Vergil muttered, as he looked to be in thought. "None of this matches the data from both the Vanguard archives and what we have. I guess we just keep waiting?"

…

"Well this sucks."

A few seconds, minutes, hours later? Sometime after I got sucked in, My ghost and I were suddenly sucked out another portal that had opened up, me landing face first onto a patch of grass as my ghost stayed afloat a few inches from the ground and cloaked, causing me to cry out in pain as the rest of my body followed.

I let out a few grunts of pain as I forced myself up, instinctively looking at my surroundings. A woman with purple eyes and long blonde hair. She carried a pink lace parasol and a paper fan, along with a deep purple dress, and a pale pink mob cap with a thin red ribbon. Smaller ribbons were tied liberally on her accessories and the tips of her hair.

She was about to open her mouth to speak, but I didn't let her. I immediately pulled out my golden gun and aimed it at her first, a golden glow on my body. "Alright, what the hell did you do to me?!"

She paused for a few seconds. "Well that's a greeting if I've ever seen one."

I couldn't help but make a flat face at that. Does this woman WANT to get shot by this? I shook my head, and pressed on. "Talk!"

"I shall talk on my own terms." She ordered, and I suddenly felt a wave of power emanate from her. Power of which I've never felt before. "Put the gun back."

I cursed under my breath for a moment, before reluctantly dispelling it, the golden glow going away. I then crossed my arms, waiting for an answer.

"So to put it simply:I saw you were going to get overwhelmed by a whole bunch of those four armed people, and took you out of there." She said with that smug smile of hers. "I would've taken that science friend of yours too, but you two didn't seem to have much care for each other, and was rather rude."

"Four armed?" I couldn't help but ask, before realizing what she meant. "Wait, you mean those barons up there were going to come down upon us? I knew I should've just blasted them!"

"And he wasn't doing the portal right, so the room was going to explode too." She said with a nod. "I took you along, because you seemed like a decent enough person to have as a shikigami."

"I don't suppose that's you suggesting I be a slave?" I said with crossed arms. "Because if so, sorry, but-"

"If it is what I'm expecting it to be," She cut me off, as if I wasn't even speaking. "Then your position would allow you a lot of freedom. I'm not going to force you into this, as truthfully becoming stronger when in the presence of your onmyouji would only make you stronger, with little benefits otherwise." She then held her hand out. "Would you be interested in setting yourself up for my Chen?"

I paused at that. "Getting stronger, eh…" I looked away in thought for a moment, before speaking to my ghost via internal comms. "You alright with this Vergil?"

"I'm not detecting any malicious intents, and there's no contradictions to be found. I think she's speaking the truth."

I nodded, and then turned back to her. "And I would die if I was far away from her?"

"You would not, and would only lose your boost in power, but it'd be in your best interest to be nearby." She explained.

"'Aight then," I said as I took her hand. "As long as whoever this 'Chen' guy or gal is, I'm game."

She smiled. "Welcome to our little family then." She said, and another one of those portals opened up beneath us. I instinctively tried to let go and jump out of the way, but Yukari's grip was firm yet soft, as she pulled me in.

I let out a small yelp of surprise of being put back inside of this place, before shortly ending up in what looked like an abandoned village with cats all over the place. I turned to look at Yukari. "So you are the one who made the portals. I thought I was sensing someone behind this."

She took on a look of surprise. "You could sense me even though I wasn't there?"

"A good hunter is trained to feel what kind of eyes are watching them, both mechanical and organic." I casually explained. "Safe to say, I was feeling your eyes on me the whole time back there, but couldn't quite place where it was."

I then looked around, finally spotting a worn sign that said 'Mayohiga'. "So where in Mayohiga is this 'Chen'?"

* * *

9 months had passed since I was inducted into this little family of mine. I thankfully didn't seem to be infected with any dangerous SIVA during my stay here. Chen and I treated each other like best friends, despite the magical bonds that automatically make me weaker when trying to fight her. Being her shikigami had honestly been an afterthought to us both, like it didn't even matter. We'd just ask each other to do stuff, and we'd do it without a second thought. I did scouting, getting yarn for her to mess around with, exploring when we had free-time, or even just having general fun. It felt like one of those instances where a cat was friends with a mouse.

Did I say cat and yarn? Because she is a cat. Two-tailed. Though that part is concealed for the most part unless jumps in water like a dolt. Never went near her during those times, as any sane person would.

She also turned out to be a bit of a chieftain of cats, ironically enough. Mainly to search for a shikigami, of which she got as a birthday present. That birthday present being me, funny how that worked out.

It was pretty much unreasonable for us to just leave each other. It was working out too well.

Which is why today sucked, as Ran had came up to us with an order that neither of us were fine with.

"This is bull." I mumbled to myself, as I restarted the ol' sparrow, which Vergil had transmatted for me. "Why's she ordering me around?! She doesn't have me as a Shiki!"

"She has me though, Kalmin." She said with a frown, wincing in sympathy. "The rules are rules for us. What she says is my order."

"Buuut, we do get to play lots like usual, won't we?" She offered with her cute smile on her face. "I bet I'll beat you at fishing this time!"

I couldn't help but grin at the challenge. "Heh. In your dreams kitty. You can't beat the harpoon master!"

She huffed at that and made a mock frown. "I'll have you know, I'm just as good at cooking tuna as catching! It's not my favorite food for no reason!"

We laughed looked to the horizon. The sun was beginning to peer from the horizon, and the Sparrow had finally warmed up.

I gave her a little noogie on the head, before getting on. "Don't go biting anyone, eh?"

She gave me a playful smack on my butt with one of her tails at that, causing me to chuckle. "Don't go causing small incidents either!"

"The call of b- duty always awaits me." I said, shit eating grin on my face as I left.

Time to see what the hell Yukari wanted me for now.


	3. Can't Even See The Heart That's Leaving

"Are you sure we're on the right track?" I asked a little impatiently, and a little worried that he might finally be turning on me. "Not to be rude or anything, but I'm itching to fight the guys at the Hive portal we're gonna manipulate."

My ghost, Celeste, sighs in response. "No, we're not there yet. Mars is quite far away at the moment due to the time we left, and we can't afford to get spotted by the guardians." She says in response, turning to look at me. "Are you absolutely sure though? I mean, not to offend but…"

I nodded. "I'm sure, buddy. Once we activate the portal, I can manipulate it to send m- us somewhere better. Maybe the home planet of those fuckers, and then maybe the Tower will crown me a bloody god. Not that I give half a shit."

"Y'know, it still surprises me even." My ghost points out. "How even Shaxx considers you too rough."

"It ain't my fault he was so easy." I sneered. "It's his fault for not getting off the couch to actually fight instead of watch REAL warriors." I then flexed my biceps to prove my point.

Celeste rolled her eye. "Yes, your titan muscles are titan muscles, and Osiris is still in the Infinite Forest being the Infinite Hermit."

"Not even a hermit." I said callously. "Just a scared old man hiding in a Forest, claiming to be fighting a 'truly terrible foe' that moves at walking speeds and can blink…"

"Blink across whole star systems…" She then sighed. "Honestly, you're such a child."

A beeping caught our attention, signifying that we arrived to Mars. My smirk was then replaced with a cold, hard stare. I put on my Insurmountable Skullfort and entered the ship's armory, that of which was a small, cramped room with very little space beyond my armor and weapons.

I put on the hardcase armor set, armor shaded in a noble red of which I had long familiarized myself with, and taken what few weapons I wanted out of a weapons locker, those being Breakneck, Shock and Awe, and Boltcaster.

She then moved to my side. "That all you want? I can set the remaining ones in-"

"Nope." I replied with an almost forced grin, cocking my head to the sides as to make a loud popping sound. "This is all I'm gonna need."

My ghost nodded in acknowledgement. "Understood. Transmatting in-"

"Also, I'm pretty sure you know how I want to be transmatted?"

She gave me a stare torn between annoyance and amusement. "Serious? Even with the chance of getting-"

"100% serious." I said, cracking my neck. "Their ghosts are gonna watch as I walk through the portal. Make sure there's no need for them to look for a dead man."

She sighs. "Transmatting in 3...2...1…"

* * *

It was a normal day in the Glacial Drift. Guardian forces were working hard to follow through Rasputin's Escalation Protocol in an effort to wipe out Xol's Hive, or to gain Rasputin's favor and obtain one of his many powerful Ikelos weapons. Cabal chatted and plotted among themselves, watching their sworn enemies do battle from afar, knowing they had no chance to cause damage to either side as they fought. An occasional guardian would come in and out of the area, giving a small wave to his fellow guardians in arms, while completely ignoring the Cabal.

And then I came in and slammed down in the midst of it all, annihilating the guardians alongside a few unlucky Hive. This caused the hordes of hive to stop and stare at me for a few moments in confusion.

I gave them a friendly wave. "Thank me later for swatting these flies of yours." Was all I said, before I popped out my sparrow to drive off.

Not a moment too soon, some of the guardians that had just resurrected began shooting at me, having already recognized me as a wanted man. I paid them no heed, even as some of the bullets struck me, and moved deeper into the ice, and heading into the Olympus Descent, a cavern of ice and death. I sped past some of the Hive, leaving them behind as to buy time, before jumping off my sparrow and readying my Breakneck, running through the cavern and taking a right.

I fired, mowing down the small group of unprepared acolytes, all of them turning to dust as I kept firing and reloading, moving up the small hillside to my right. Hive knights with blaster guns quickly began firing at me, and I dodged their slow moving shots with ease, before swapping to Shock and Awe and rushing up a hill, charging up the weapon all the while. I then shot a stream of arc blasts into one of the knights, its shield overloading and releasing an arc wave, which overloaded its ally's shield. The hive knight then disintegrated from the arc, the remaining hive knight looking weakened. I clocked it in the face, before heading into the Penumbral Depths, a hive barrier forming behind me just as I made it in.

I continued making my way through uninterrupted, the hive apparently trying to make barrier after barrier in an attempt to stop me, but were unable to as I kept rushing through the areas in a matter of seconds, barreling down the hive that got in my way with my shoulder and grenades, leaving little to none in my wake.

It wasn't long until I reached the hole leading inactive hive portal. I jumped down the area around me being empty. Six arches stood before me, a hive ritual plate in between.

"Celeste." I said aloud.

Celeste decloaked as the Boltcaster dropped into my right hand. I crouched down, and cut my free hand with the shard, a grunt escaping me as I stained the shard with my blood. I then held the shard in a striking position, before jamming it into the plate. The hive plate glowed with its intense green hive magic, before the portal opened up for me.

"I have to say it before we enter," Celeste said as she looked to me. "I didn't expect things to go so well. You'd think the hive would've anticipated us."

"The hive are also conditioned to think we'd kill every single one of them before moving on." I said in response, as I stood up. "This is just a perk of our situation… as much as I hate to leave punching bags behind."

"Eh, I suppose it's true in light of that." She said in response. We both then stared at the portal for a moment, before she looked at me. "Are we going? Because I don't think we should wait for those guys to catch up."

I stayed silent in hesitation of what I was about to do.

"Guardian?"

"I'm sorry..." I let out, as I grabbed her with my left. She let out a yelp of surprise.

"Guardian, what are you doing?!"

"I don't deserve this Celeste." I said as I moved back to the hole I jumped through. "I don't deserve you."

"So you're leaving me behind in a hive breeding ground?!" She then tried to escape my grasp, thinking my intentions were something else.

"Celeste, why do you think I really disturbed those guardians? When I could've just got a move on?"

She went silent, taking it in. Her blue eye stared at me in shock.

"If I keep you with me, you're gonna end up like Sundance. Like Cayde." I stated as a matter of fact, holding back emotions as I explained it to her. "I can't bear it in good conscience to think that something like that might happen again to you… so I'm doing something else."

"Guardian… I understand that it could happen." She said after a short moment of silence. "But it can't happen to us. You can make it through anything."

"Exactly." I said, using my bloodied hand to take off my helmet. I then gave her a smile. "I can make it through anything. But not you."

I heard the guardians off in the distance firing rockets and using supers at the hive, an ogre's unholy battle cry letting itself be known as it fired its laser beams at the guardians. I looked back to the hole.

"We're out of time."

I then threw her up into the hole, her crying out for me as she was sent flying deep within. I ran to the portal without looking back. The world went black around me, as the hive portal taken me away, directed only by a single thought of mine.

_Bring me to a realm rife with violence._

* * *

When the hive magic finally rid itself of me, I found myself standing on a cliffside at… Earth?

_What. _Was all I could think of, raising an eyebrow in response to my situation. I looked down below, spotting a village and a few mansions, all surrounded by lush green forests. There was hardly any fallen or hive activity that I could see. Confused as to my current situation, I walked up to the edge of the cliffside, looking around once more. A forest was below me, seemingly inactive.

_Maybe it's just an error? That warlock's journal isn't really easy to read…_

Shrugging, I looked around for a place that would promote punching. I saw a blood red lake... in the middle of the day… no blood red moon.

I jumped with a smile, arc covering my being as I flew. _Found a place._

* * *

Kurumi was awoken from her slumber by the sound of electricity off in the distance. Opening her eyes in confusion, she looked to the source of the noise… only to meet an arc powered fist going into her face.

"Uwa?!" She cried out, getting sent flying back as a result. She quickly utilized her magic to start flying, levitating in the air as she looked at her armored opponent, who held… his? Hers? Arms out to the side in a goading gesture.

She could feel the grin on the armored figure's face as the person spoke. "So you slaughtered all these innocent people, creature of darkness!"

She cupped the spot she was hit at with a hand, feeling the burn from the electricity that hit her. "I'm sorry, wha-"

She was then cut off by the same being suddenly charging straight at her again, arc fist poised to attack. She barely managed to avoid the attack, as the being sped past her like a bullet, falling back to the ground and causing the earth below the figure to visibly shake and crack, displacing some dirt even.

The figure then stood up and spoke again. "Come now. Give me a challenge! Resist your judgement or whatever guardians say!" The being goaded again.

"Hey, you got it all wrong! I'm just a-" She was cut off by the figure going at her again. She tried to dodge, but it proved fruitless even as she raised the circle to block, as the being predicted where she was going. The sheer force of the attack broke her barrier and punched her in the gut, cracking her ribs. She fell to the ground, groaning in agony.

The person walked up to her, continuing to urge her to attack. "Hey come on! You can't be done now, right?!"

_Fuck it, just let Elly deal with this. _She then pretended to go unconscious, in hopes it'd leave the place altogether.

"Hey, get up already ya mass murdering arse!" The person tried to force a confrontation again, almost with a pleading tone to it. When she didn't respond, she heard a sigh. "I thought this place had people to fight, not the same shit different place!" She then heard the person walk off, and after a moment passes, she gets up to watch the figure leave the gate to the lake, heading off to the Forest Of Magic.

She then turns around, clutching her chest as she went to get Elly. She wasn't guarding again until she recovered from the surprise attack… and maybe after Reimu deals with that brawler.

* * *

I was annoyed to say the least, but not surprised. I didn't know how to use the shard after all, and that 'a place rife with violence' could mean basically anywhere in retrospect. It didn't make me any less annoyed that the fights here were weak though, and I had once more resumed the search for strong people to fight.

I quickly came across hive-like humans. Not remotely close looking to the Hive, but resembled their early stages when they were but moth people. I'd know so due to that Toland dude being obsessed about them, took his journal to try and understand, but it was too wordy. They considered me a danger and avoided, not that I blamed the small things. Real titans were strong and dangerous. And incredibly muscular. So why wouldn't they be afraid?

I shrugged while walking through the quite boorish forest. Sure there were large mushroom things that shot up big scary lookin' spores into the air, and some of the flies were rather unfriendly towards me, but all in all? It was like a budget-cut Dreadnaught combined with a knock-off Dreaming City to me. As well as a taken-less one.

_That actually reminds me. Where are the light hunting bastards? _I thought as I looked around in curiosity.

_**Thump.**_

I spun on my heel after having felt the ground shake, looking in the direction of where the sound came.

_**Thump.**_

Something big was nearby, an ogre? Gate lord? Whatever it is, it needed to be punched before it could cause any destruction.

I smiled as I cracked my knuckles. "You ready for this Celeste?"

No response.

I looked around for my ghost, only to remember what happened. I frowned for a moment at the sudden reminder, before shaking my head.

The only way to improve is to move on.

I leapt into the air once more, seeing a giant of a human with swords the size of only the strongest of Hive. My fist shook with excitement at the beast before me, and arc covered my being.

I flew.

* * *

Alice Margatroid's day was rather boorish to say the least, but at least it was productive. Marisa had gone out with Reimu to solve an incident that was happening, and the fairies of light had since left her home, having found themselves able to keep on their own feet for a change. Since then, it had been quite lonely at her home, especially without her neighbor. So she had taken to working on the Goliath Doll to pass the time.

The Goliath Doll was about the same as usual. Big 3-story tall swords that fired lasers in huge, arcing sweeps, being able to move about at its usual slow, clunky speeds. But it had become adaptable to smaller targets at least, and would use its body to try and run over the foe. It was an improvement at the-

She heard a yell coming from her left, as did the Goliath Doll. She turned to look at the source to find a ball of incredibly bright lightning rushing at her Goliath Doll, hitting it in the face. It stumbled back a few steps, before falling into her house, ruining her day just like that. The light from the blue ball disappeared, revealing an armored figure that had charged at it.

She was gobsmacked at the sight. One of her strongest dolls, sent stumbling onto her home… _because of a mere brute!?_

"Don't worry miss!" The figure announced in a practiced, faked but slightly genuine heroic tone, as the figure entered a combat position. "I will stop this monster from-"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE DOING?!" She screeched at the armored figure, causing it to stop and look at her.

"...Fighting a monster?" The stranger said, genuinely confused. "Was that not trying to destroy your house?"

"You caused it to destroy my house meathead!" She said while pointing at him. "Do you not even bother to check what's going on before attacking?!"

"Yes."

"Then prepare to die!"

"Ok!" The figure said, turning back to the Goliath Doll. The figure then turned to her again. "Wait, you wanna fight me?"

Her eyebrow twitched. "Do I look like a human to you?!"

"Yes." The armored figure then pointed at her as she sputtered, trying to formulate a response to this madman. "Where's your weapon by the way? Are you secretly a warlock? They love wearing dresses, especially that nipple chained one; I think that was called Heart Of Praxic Flames, it was a big sacred robe of theirs..."

"...Oh man, this day had changed so drastically." She held her head to ease the already incoming migraine, and decided to take a seat on a chair that was fortunately left standing. "All I did was try to work on my doll… and then you come in and ruin everything!"

The figure stared at her for a moment.

Then looked back to the Goliath.

Then back to her. "Can I fight it?"

"Just don't destroy it." She said, as she willed the Goliath Doll to fight. It stood up, swords at the ready.

"OK!" The figure said with a chirp, and rushed to fight the doll, who already tried to slam a sword into the figure. The figure side-stepped the attack, but didn't expect the energy wave from the sword to shoot out lasers at him, and took it at point blank range. While the majority of lasers hit, a few did, penetrating the armor and hitting him in many vital points of the body. She thought it was it then.

To her surprise though, the armored figure laughed jovially. "A REAL CHALLENGER!" He shouted, as he pulled out a handle of a sword from his hip and unleashing his own sword, jumping on top of the sword while both her and the Goliath Doll were distracted.

The Goliath Doll tried to scrape him off using its other sword, but he merely jumped over it, hanging from the sword by a threat as he barely caught onto it again. He jumped off, rushing to slash the Goliath Doll in the face, and causing a minor cut to its overall frame. Alice immediately noticed this, and not wanting to have some of her life's work destroyed, immediately pulled the Goliath Doll out of the battle with the strings she had connected to it, putting it by her side.

"I JUST SAID NOT TO DESTROY IT!" She shouted, as the figure stared at her. "It was bad enough that you used my work to destroy my house, but now you want to destroy my doll?!"

The figure was genuinely confused. "I wasn't destroying it, I'm just fighting it!"

Her right eye twitched. She summoned the rest of her dolls, who were thankfully alive in the rubble. A whole, angry horde of them had lined up in front of her. "Leave."

"Jeeze, guy can't get a fight around here…" The armored figure muttered to himself, deciding to respect her wishes instead of fighting. "Where's all the fighting?"

* * *

Yukari scans the cliffside, looking for Genskoyo's interloper. Normally she'd respond immediately, but at the same time she sensed it, the 'guardian' had released Flandere and escaped, drawing her attention away for a few moments as she stayed to re-contain Flandre, listen, and find him. Much to hers, and Remilia's dismay, both the guardian and interloper had escaped.

She sighs, sits down on the cliff, staring at all of Gensokyo. She then smiles. "Well, it's not as if something️ bad could happen from this, right? A little chaos now and then doesn't hurt, and they don't know danmaku… I'd highly doubt that warlock I got wouldn't immediately try to kill the Youkai, which would land him in hot water."

"Oh, one of them robed dudes showed up?"

She turned to look at the newcomer. "Ah, Kalmin. Yes, we do have some issues regarding your kind here. One had entered Gensokyo of their own volition, while the other I had teleported in, but was set on escaping to live his own life. Former had destroyed Alice Margatroid's house thinking her Goliath Doll was an enemy." She then put her fan in front of her mouth. "Since you are an excellent tracker, we thought you could locate the interloper while I deal with that warlock."

"Wouldn't they be traveling together, though?" Kalmin pointed out, as he walked up to her side. "They'd be a bit of a pain if we just took them on ourselves. Trust me when I say you should never underestimate a guardian."

"You've still yet to prove that to us." She said with a bit of a giggle. "I'll go around the Forest of Magic. Perhaps he'd still be there, it is our most dangerous area after all."

Kalmin hummed in thought, as he looked over Gensokyo. His eyes settled on the mountain ahead of them. "Youkai Mountain. He'd probably be dead unless Momiji got to him, yeah, but he wouldn't be in the human village of all places. That's a vantage point he would get behind first."

"Then," Yukari said, as she opened up a pair of portals for themselves. "It's time for the hunt to begin."

* * *

**TheRealCactoos:Which timeline is it for both?**

**I'm not really sure where it is. Touhou itself doesn't seem to have a clear timeline for the most part, despite having such in the wiki. Plus its lore sometimes goes from child friendly in its various manga and games, to 'wtf' did I just read? (Bit of a spoiler on Wild and Horned Hermit btw for you Touhou fans in the next chapter btw).**

**It definitely isn't pre-EoSD though. Even after the events, Flandre still seems at large trapped there, so she is going to remain trapped there. I think we might be on 10 if anything.**

**Guest:Warlocks can fly, and light and darkness aren't bound by science.**

**Explain the warlock's stormcaller quest in the The Taken King then, as it requires you to find a Vex mind core to use as a conductor for Arc Light. **

**Also the warlocks cannot fly, and if they even if they can, not forever. I know Ikora kinda does it(it's more accurately hovering in the air), but she's a Vanguard Discipline, which means she's one of the strongest warlocks. Flying meanwhile, is innate to pretty much everyone in Touhou.**

**With that final character done, I will see you guys next week with another chapter!**


	4. Slipping Through A Dark Eternity

"How do you not even know what a Tengu is, baka?!" Cirno almost yelled in response. "Those Tengu are everywhere!"

"How do you not know what magic is, even though you use it?" I fired back in an annoyed manner. "And I have a name y'know."

"But still! You haven't even heard of them making gossip or newspapers?!"

"I am new to these lands." I almost growled out. "Explain one reason why I should know people that are on the other side of the globe."

"Uh, they make newspapers?"

_Someone kill me already, my valuable mind is being destroyed like china in a china shop from this bull._ I mentally cried out in agony with a sigh. "Didn't we go over that most newspapers are only made locally, Cirno? Why should I know of the tengu?"

"How do you not even know what a Tengu is, baka?!"

I mentally screamed in pain from the sheer stupidity exuding from her. _How?! How is it that someone is so dumb, they cannot comprehend my words? I'm not even talking about the scientific complexities of the central neuro-terminus at the center of Io's lake! Hell, I'm not even explaining the complexities of the Hive or using Eliksni language!_

Just as I was about to start the conversation over again, we heard a camera go off to our right. We turned to our right to see a girl wearing a white blouse, black short skirt, and a tokin, who held a camera in her grasp, pointed ears, and two black wings on her back.

The girl smiled at me. "Hello you two~! Are you going on a date today?"

…

"Who's this reporter girl?" I lazily raised a finger at the black-winged girl, while looking at Cirno.

Instead of responding, Cirno instead went to rush at the black-winged girl in a panic, firing ice at her as she did so. "Give me that camera you stupid tengu!" She screamed in fear.

"Nu uh! This is going in my headlines!" She said smugly, as she aftly dodging over and over with an equally smug smile.

I instead made a flat face, watching as the two squabbled over the camera. _"Right, only one solution to this. Saga?"_

_"Disabling life forces. Lets not have ourselves getting defamed so early."_

My body fell to the ground as my armor was again transmatted, causing the two to look to me. Both flew over in curiosity, watching me closely.

"Is he dead?"

"Well that was kinda weird… oh! I think this will be a-"

I materialized behind her in a flash of light with my armor on, flaming wings visible on my back as my body covered itself in a golden glow. Immediately I grabbed and ripped the camera away from her. She yelped in surprise, and turned around just in time to see me melt the camera into molten slag.

"MY CAMERA!" The girl cried out, as Cirno laughed at her misfortune.

I let the melted device fall to the ground, watching as the girl tried to blow on it to cool it down. I couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the sight. "Next time don't go trying to make fake news."

"Yeah, you tell her Daishin!" Cirno backed my opinion almost immediately, having taken a break between laughing.

The girl looked absolutely furious. "You broke my camera! That's vandalism!"

"You make fake stories of real people. Just one can be a lawsuit ranging from a buck to a million in my homeland." I said with a drawl, as I threw a solar grenade at my corpse, burning it to ashes.

The girl realized while it was happening, and tried to get to my old body to use it as evidence, but found herself flinching away from the sheer heat the solar grenade emanated. I watched a little sadistically as the reality of what happened came falling down upon her, total shock filling her expression.

When she finally snapped out of the shock, she turned to me with an enraged expression. "You jerk! I'll get you back for destroying the story of the day before I, Aya Shameimaru, could report it!"

_Your name is Aya Shameimaru…_ I mentally scoffed as I grinned outwards, watching the living joke of a reporter fly away… or to be more accurate, almost quite literally teleport away. _As much of a living joke she is, she is a threat with that speed. I will need to keep her in mind if blows come to blows._

Cirno meanwhile, was just laughing her ass off. "Oh! Oh that was so funny! She was all like 'You can't stop me, I AM the word!', and then you were all 'Omae wa mou shindeiru.', it was hilarious!"

I actually couldn't help but feel a little grateful at the compliment. "Why thank you!"

And then she quickly went back to being smug and stupid, albeit with a bit of a blush on her cheeks. "O-of course, I could've did it myself. Easily even, I'm the strongest!"

"Yeah yeah, whatever…" I said with a roll of my eyes, deciding to get a move on.

"Hold it right there!"

I looked to the new speaker, thankful that my helmet was hiding all my reactions as I stared her down with an irritated look. "There a problem?"

It was a white wolf girl wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt, and a large black skirt with red flame-like designs reaching up from the bottom of the skirt. She had short light silver hair and wears a red tokin. She held a large scimitar-like sword and a white, round shield with a red maple leaf print on it.

"You are starting to intrude upon the territory of Youkai Mountain is the problem here!" The wolf pointed out. "As such, I am going to need to-"

My ghost transmatted my helmet off of me, surprising the two, before transmatting it back on. "Happy?"

"Hmmm…" The wolf scrutinized me. "I guess? Humans wouldn't have flaming wings on their backs, which would make you a phoenix youkai wouldn't it?"

"I am very much human thank you very much." I let out with a tint of annoyance, deactivating my radiance and ridding myself of the wings. "I merely practice the art of light manipulation."

"Oh so… you're an engineer? Magician?"

"The light he speaks of comes from this 'Traveler', and is in him." Cirno clarified.

"Partially innate to my very being, I'm an extension of it and its power." I corrected with a frown, before deciding to take the conversation to a better direction. "I'm heading towards a shrine somewhere at this mountain to learn about magic. Cirno said it'd be at the top."

The wolf girl stared at me for a couple moments, before shrugging. "Well, if Cirno trusts you, then you must not be here to disturb the peace. We're busy anyhow, someone dangerous could be in our territory." She then looks to the molten slag before us and smiles. "Did you melt Aya's camera by the way?"

"Tried to spread gossip that we were a couple, so I gave her the just desserts." I said with a nod, and causing her to smile so hard it threatened to split her face. "I take it she does this on a regular basis?"

"Oh like you would not BELIEVE!" She said with a chuckle. "Glad to see somebody was finally able to put that speedster in her place. I'll make sure Chief Tenma knows that you mean no harm, nice work!"

"Much appreciated Ms…?"

"Momiji Inubashiri." She said, as she held her hand out. "Yours?"

"Daishin. Daishin Minor." I said, as I took the hand and shook it.

"Well it was nice meeting you Daishin!" She then parted with a wave.

"You too!" I said, waving back, watching as she left. I then looked to Cirno. "Y'know, for demons you people aren't half-bad. Normally all the aliens I meet wanna kill me."

Cirno cocked her head at that. "Aliens? Like the Celestials?"

I sighed. _These people and their fake gods..._ "Forget I said anything."

"This was rather strange though." Cirno said thoughtfully. "Normally White Wolf Tengu like Momiji wouldn't rush to meet an intruder. They must be having an incident or something…"

My heart stopped for a second at that. _"Could they be looking for us?"_

_"I don't-"_

Momiji then came back to us. "Oh, and I forgot to mention that there was a breach in the boundaries today. Be on the lookout for any dangerous youkai or oni! They may seek to bring you harm while we're all busy looking!" Was all she said, as she then parted ways again.

_"Nevermind… so, this breach must mean something bad. We should go look for the intruder after we're done here. If it has gotten these wolves riled up, they must mean trouble."_

* * *

We continued walking up the mountain, having recently entered a forest so big it had no lighting in it, thus forcing me to introduce my ghost to Cirno. After a brief introduction with no critical information being revealed to her, we continued through the forest, my ghost's light illuminating the path. The atmosphere was heavy, no doubt due to heavy foliage and darkness here, and the only signs of life have been the trees.

Cirno had taken to being a little closer to me, no doubt scared from the situation. I didn't pay it much attention. It more than that to scare a guardian.

"Would you mind not holding onto me so tightly?" I requested, turning around to look at Cirno. "It's starting to get a bit annoying…"

"I'm trying to protect you, stupid human!" Cirno hissed out. "This is the Great Youkai Forest. Youkai who thrive in the dark tend to live here, and there's also that-"

"Turn back…" An almost ghostly, feminine voice echoed from afar.

I whipped out Young Wolf's Howl at the sound of the voice, it lighting up the dark while Cirno got her magic at the ready. My ghost had long since cloaked when the noise came.

"Who's there?!" I called out to the dark.

"Only misfortune awaits the foolish…"

"Yeah, well my sword awaits permission to go up where the sun don't shine on you." I fired back at the ghostly voice. "Now come out or we're going to have some problems!

The voice sighed, as she then revealed herself. Aquamarine hair and eyes, the hair is decorated with red bows and white frills. Part of her hair is tied under her chin with a bow as a sort front ponytail. She wore a red dress which is darker around her middle, and lighter on the bottom. The dress also has white frills on the bottom, and she had an enormous white kerchief on top. The bottom of her dress is decorated with a similar aquamarine swirl resembling an pre-golden age Japanese symbol at the bottom. She wore knee-length black cross-laced boots.

The girl stared in annoyance at me. "You're either really stubborn, or foolish to have come to Youkai Mountain. Why are you here, human?"

"Learning magic." I said while watching her every move. "Why are you here? Trying to ambush people?"

"I'm a misfortune god." She responds pragmatically. "I collect misfortune from humans, and scare them off. Youkai Mountain is a dangerous place."

At that point, I slowly blinked, taken completely off-guard. "Collect misfortune?" After I said this, I unconsciously moved out of the way of bird poop that was about to land on me, only just being aware of it when it landed.

The girl seemed to be surprised for a moment. "...Ok, either that was skills the likes of Reimu, or you just got extremely lucky. Most likely the latter." She then cleared her throat. "Alright, so say if that landed on you? That would've counted as misfortune, and thus I'd take the bad luck away from you to prevent it from bothering you like that. Although the mere act of responding to me causes bad luck to you, so I think we should cut this short."

"She's the cursed girl I was going to talk about, and is right on that." Cirno said with a nod. The cursed girl then took note of Cirno. She looked as if she was about to say something, but shook her head.

"...You youkai are weird." I said with a grimace underneath the helmet. I then turned to Cirno. "Let's just get a move on. I want to learn as much as I can about magic here, not get overly friendly with the locals."

"Yes, that would be a good idea." The girl said, as she then disappeared.

* * *

We came into a beautiful valley at the foot of the mountain, having just left the 'dark and foreboding' forest as Cirno decided to put it. There was a large river leading up from the mountaintop, an unfinished dam several dozen yards or so away from the entrance, of which seemed to lead over to the mountain path. A few kids were sitting on the unfinished dam, in the middle of a conversation.

"Bah, the kappa still haven't finished that?" Cirno said with crossed arms. "When are they going to get such a simple thing done?"

"Kappa?"

"Self-supposed smartypants they are." She said with a 'hmph!' sound. "Can't even handle making a bridge."

I paused for a second and looked at them, before shrugging and deciding to try and listen in. Cirno seemed to take note of what I was doing.

"Don't you know it is rude to eavesdrop, human?"

"I'm learning here." I waved her off, ignoring her indignant cry, as I listened to the tengu.

"Say, did you hear about the dragon statue in the human village?"

"Yeah, the eyes turned red again. Reimu and Marisa are going about and checking everything, but so far nothing had turned up anywhere. It's awfully strange to see that we can get an incident, but there's no apparent sign of it for a change… well, other than that interloper. But one person can't cause that much damage, can they?"

"Well, you do have Flandre and Remilia. Those two could be up to something to get Reimu and Marisa up in arms for a danmaku battle."

_"What? Flandre doesn't seem the type to cause trouble… Saga, did you find anything abnormal on her?"_

_"Honestly didn't even think about scanning her at all. But surely she should be a good person right? Her sister tried to enslave us, and she was keeping her down there…"_

Shaking my head in disbelief, I decided to try and pass them by, but the kappas quickly took notice of me.

"Oooh, human!" They collectively said, surrounding me in the process.

"Hey, you have any food for us?"

"I love me some cucumbers!"

"I wanna go for his shirikodama instead…"

"Guys, don't pressure him!" The lead tengu said in the middle of the noise between the three, causing them to stop. "We can honestly go without it today! ...Although it would be nice."

The lead tengu then looked at me. "Do have any cucumbers?"

After a slow blink, I shook my head. "I just got to these lands. And I'm afraid I do not know what a shirikodama is, so-"

"Oh, well allow us to show you!" One of the tengu said, as they went to unbuckle my trousers. I stood there in confusion at what they were doing, as one of them went behind me.

"Guys, don't do this to the human!" The lead tengu cried out with an angry face that was less cute than scary. "Why do you think humans never come around?!"

Once they were finished, they were greeted with nothing.

"Eh?!" They let out collectively.

"Wait a second! Where's your thing?!" Cirno almost yelled in surprise, in a similar state as the tengu.

"I'm not sure what you guys are looking for down there." I said casually. "Guardians don't reproduce. Our resurrections don't include it, ghosts can't make those parts."

_"At least it's what we know so far, right?"_

_"The ghosts haven't been clear with me on that, and its been a long time on checking the rules since… y'know, getting trapped and all."_

"You mean you don't even poo?!" The lead tengu exclaimed, as the tengu then spread my buttcheeks. "Guys, he doesn't even have a pooper!"

"Aw man!"

"Are you a youkai in disguise?!"

"No meal today…"

"Ok first off, rude." I said to the lead tengu, before addressing the others. "Second off, I don't know what the heck this 'shirikodama' is, and I frankly don't care. You guys are kinda inconveniencing me here, and I'd rather get to the top of the mountain. It was interesting meeting you four."

I then pushed the tengu out of my way, and jumped across the unfinished bridge with a sprint, tugging on the gravity of the planet with my light to ascend higher, and descend slower, safely landing on the other side of the bridge.

"The human knows magic, when he's looking to learn it?!"

"He must be a youkai, he must be!"

"Uwa… so hungry!"

"Well, at least he doesn't hate us…"

As the kappas left, I looked to Cirno who was still shocked at my lack of equipment. "You still following?"

"...Are you sure, YOU'RE not the weird one here, human?" She couldn't help but ask as she flew over. "I mean, not even a pooper?"

"My goal is to keep people alive, not reproduce." I fired back, as we continue on the path to the Shrine.

* * *

A thought occurred to me as we, or rather I since Cirno was still flying, climbed the mountain. That there didn't seem to be an awful lot of Youkai for a Youkai Mountain. I confronted Cirno on this.

"...Oh, I forgot!" She said whilst scratching her temples. "I forgot to tell you about the Yamanba! Most of the tengu and kappas tend to be inside the mountain, but the only reason we're taking this path is not only because you can't fly, but you might encounter some Yamanba who might not like seeing you at their spot!"

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Do they attack humans?"

"No, but they find it rude to go in their space!" She then pointed to herself with a thumb. "Besides, all those mean Youkai are gonna back off at the sight of the Strongest!"

_"I think they're just avoiding the dumbest out of pity…"_

_"Touche."_

As we walked pass a pond, a giant toad suddenly popped out and swallowed Cirno whole! I dashed away with a sword glide, barely managing to avoid getting squished as the ground shook from the impact of its landing.

"Aaaaiieeeee! Not this slimy guy again!" I heard her call from within its stomach

"I got your back!" I called out, as I entered a combat stance, the giant toad releasing a loud croak in response.

Instead of fighting it head-on, I sought to remain on the defensive, and dashed away. The toad tried to grab me with its tongue, but was unable to reach me as I flew away. Once I finished moving, I went to dash back in a gambit that it'd jump over, and much to my luck, the toad jumped over to where I was earlier, allowing me to go under it and ready Praedyth's Timepiece. I fired several bursts into it as it landed, its giant body shaking with each arc burst.

It spun around and once more jumped, and I went under repeating the whole process. I faked trying to go under again, and the toad lashed out in an attempt to grab me, allowing me to snag a chance at hitting it with Young Wolf's Howl. I pulled out the sword and slammed almost instantly, damaging its tongue and leaving a burn on it. It released a cry of pain as it pulled the tongue back in, and for a second it looked to be in pain, until a look of anger covered its features for the potshots I gave it. It leaped around at a faster rate, intent on crushing me for not playing fair.

I continued to dodge and weave to the best of my ability, but the frog proved tenacious. Time and time again it would continue going after me without a shred of hesitation or thought. It was incredibly hard to even get a burst shot in, as the frog and I moved about the pond's grass and lilypads, like a twisted cat and mouse game.

Just as I accidentally got myself stuck on a vine, the frog made to kill me, but stopped when it was going to leap, and started to look rather sickly. It vomited out Cirno before then proceeding to pass out from pain and exhaustion into the pond. Cirno looked slightly exhausted as she got up off the ground.

"That's the 2nd time that's happened to me here!" She said with a huff.

"2nd-" I then facepalmed. "You're telling me you FORGOT this frog was here?"

"I don't go up the mountain much, ok!?"

"Yeah, truth be told she doesn't." A new voice piped in, causing us to turn our attention to the interloper. A brown eyed woman with long brown pigtails and purple ribbons was off to our left. She wore a pinkish shirt with purple trim on the collar and a thin black tie, a black band around one arm, a purple tokin, a skirt in black/purple checker pattern with a floral pattern on the purple, a small brown pouch on her hip, thigh-high black socks rolled to her knees, and pale, purple-ish, red geta sandals with purple straps. She too carried a camera, looking like a modern cell phone, with a yellow/dark yellow checker pattern, a heart on it, and a brush hanging from it like a charm. She also had pointed ears like Aya.

Just as I was about to fire at the camera itself, she held a hand up. "Hold."

I put the weapon back. "You're not some friend of Aya's?"

She scoffed, a frown on her face visible at the mere mention of being compared to her. "Why would I be friends with THAT scum? She makes all of us reporters look bad." She then cleared her throat, and resumed a professional smile. "Anyhow, I'm Hatate Himekaidou. I run the Kakashi Spirit News, a superior rival to Aya's own. I came to thank you on eliminating my rival for the time being."

"Oh, it was no big deal, really." I said with an approving smile of my own. "She-"

"That said," She interrupted me. "While she is a total bitch, my newspaper rides on exposing her every time. My spirit thoughtography ability-"

"Ok we're done now." Was all I said at 'spirit thoughtography', as I got a move on, Cirno idly following me as well.

"Eh?!" Hatate let out in indignation. "Hold on, you didn't even let me explain!"

"I'm learning about magic before I listen to any of the bull you guys are feeding me." I said with a frown, my voice telling her I wasn't interested at all in continuing this. "Get lost."

As Hatate was left behind silently fuming at my abrupt leaving of her, I idly wondered if all the Tengu were secretly bastards of the Awoken Prince himself. I then remember Momiji, and changed my mind.

* * *

Finally, after all that time walking up the mountain, I had finally reached the Shrine near the top. I could sense a powerful presence from within the shrine, almost intimidatingly so, which set me on edge. Yet I knew that whatever was to come, I was to make friends with it, get my knowledge, and leave.

I turned to look to Cirno. "Well here we are. If 'the strongest' doesn't have anything better to do, you can watch me be an... idiot."

"Bah," Cirno said with a huff. "You'll take a few weeks to learn it. Boring!" She then smiled at me. "It was nice meeting you though!"

"Same." I replied lamely, as she flew away. As I watched her go, I suddenly felt a lot more vulnerable without any backup.

_"I guess we just go inside?"_

_"It's what we got left to do."_

Steeling myself, I went up to the shrine doors to chat with these 'goddesses'. I casually opened them, immediately finding a set of eyes on me She wore an elaborate red shirt with long white sleeves, and a round mirror over the center of her chest. Her lower body was covered by a long black skirt with a red flower print hem. Has poofy intense blue hair and dark red eyes. Behind her is a large twisting rope circle shimenawa with shide.

The woman seemed to be surprised at my appearance, but her expression quickly had a professional smile on it. "Why hello there human! Have you come to learn about me?"

"No." I said earnestly before quickly continuing. "I was wondering if you could help me learn magic. I do not know how to fly, at least not for a decent amount of time."

That immediately caused her to raise an eyebrow. "Magic? ...You came because you need help learning magic?"

"I can only fly for a half minute." I said, as I showed off my solar wings for a moment. "A third of that time, I can float instead."

The woman appeared to be stunned at the very idea. "...So you aren't here to worship?"

"The mountain is rather dangerous." I deadpanned. "If you're looking for worshippers, you should make a ropeway. The youkai seem to like harassing humans."

She blinked in response to that, before facepalming "I really need to get that made… why did I think about moving things over to the Hakurei Shrine in this first place instead of this?"

"Dunno where that shrine is or what it is." I then crossed my arms. "Cirno said there were two goddesses up here that know magic. Am I to assume you're one of them?"

"Oh! Yes, pardon me, I had forgotten to introduce myself." She then cleared her throat. "I am Kanako Yasaka, the goddess of mountains."

I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as my ghost transmatted my helmet away. "Daishin Minor, outsider to this place. You must be a goddess staying for the time being, yes?"

"Oooh, right for the potshot!" I heard another voice call from the back, causing Kanako to grit her teeth and turn around.

"Will you be quiet Suwako?! A visitor has come from faraway lands!"

"Oh, a new guy?" Suwako then peered out from behind a corner, the voice revealing itself to be a woman with a short simple purplish-blue dress with a frog print design, large white sleeves stitched onto the torso, and a white collar. She had medium length blond hair, grey eyes, a light brown wide-brimmed hat with two frog eyes on the top, white kneehighs and black shoes. "Yo!"

"...Hey." I said, unsure of what to make of the situation, before looking back at Kanako. "So, can you show me how to harness this 'magic' Cirno speaks of?"

"Most certainly!" Kanako replied with a chirp to her tone. "Magic is something that's reserved for-"

"Just find some way of controlling supernatural forces."

"Suwako!"

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Elaborate?"

"Judging from what I'm already seeing of you here, you must've gotten into a danmaku battle, failed miserably in fighting back with physical force, and then came up here." She quickly surmised. "If that's the case, then you just need to find some other way of controlling supernatural forces. I'd suggest starting out by hunting for magical items. Our followers, the kappas, can assist you in this."

"The ones who went looking for a 'shirikodama' on me when I had none?" I inquired. "They don't seem like the sorts that have such things."

This caused the two goddess to slowly blink in reaction to my claim.

"...What?" Kanako couldn't help but say aloud.

"The Traveler, my god, isn't able to bring back those bits for some reason." I partially lied to them, not wanting to reveal my ghost. "So I am without them forever."

"Ah, I see. A nanny god." Suwako said with a nod, as I decided to ignore her heinous comment. "Well, like I said, see if you can get some from our followers. Just be careful not to let them rip into you."

"...I'm going off on a bit of a limb here." I said with some suspicion, as I thought more about that moment. "Does having my shirikodama removed lethal?"

"Oh most certainly so." Kanako said with a nod. "While I don't approve of it, the kappas are still at large uninterested in following my orders. They'd be willing to take it from humans with force if needed."

That immediately set off several alarms in my head. "...And they're supposed to be youkai?"

"A decent amount of Youkai eat humans as a necessity or a delicacy, while the majority of youkai-"

I tuned her out at that point._ "Humans definitely seemed to be lacking around here, and considering everything that I've witnessed regarding youkai… this place isn't peaceful. Humanity is being suppressed just like we are on Earth."_

_"Well then, I guess there's no rest for the wicked." _Saga said as he ran through the data he's obtaining from the two goddesses._ "I suppose you already know the big idea we're both going for here?"_

_"Once we're done assessing the kappa threat here, I want you to stay safe ghost. You may be able to go invisible, but who knows what else might happen?"_

_"Touche... I'm compiling and transferring data to your HUD system on what kind of Youkai you might end up looking at. Stay safe guardian. You still need me too."_

"-And that's basically all of the youkai in a nutshell!" Kanako finished off. "Any questions?"

"No." I said as I turned around. "I think I've understood everything so far. It will be a… pleasant experience getting used to these lands."

"Y'know, if that Traveler guy of yours turns out to be bad or dies, you can always find a place at the Moriya Shrine." Kanako once again offered.

I didn't respond to such a heinous accusation, and simply left the shrine. I looked around, my HUD giving me the information I need as I took in my surroundings. There was smoke coming out from various parts of the mountain, the data stating that it strongly suggested that kappa were within. An abandoned village was visible around the bottom of the mountain. I decided to go to the bottom of the mountain to test my skills upon the local youkai before going up the food chain.

With Young Wolf's Howl in my grasp, I jumped down without a care in the world, moss flying off my body from the sheer wind hitting me. My legs broke as I landed and slid on the slope, but that was minor to me, as it would heal itself while I fell. As I neared the village, I prepared to tug on the gravity of the earth below, and once I neared, suddenly halted my harsh descent to a slow, graceful landing.

I saw a Youkai before me. Creature with two cat tails, seemingly oblivious attitude about her. Perfect conditions for an easy kill.

I meticulously approached her as she went about her business. The demon was still completely unaware of my presence, even as I was but a few feet away from her. I raised the sword to strike.

As I went to cut her in half and disintegrate her with the flames of humanity's oldest defenders, movement from behind became know to both of us. The demon looked around just in time to see my sword descend, a look of horror on her face as I split her, the flames quickly doing their work to turn her to ash upon doing so. I instinctively looked behind me, spotting Aya Shameiru, who was flying above me. A silence was shared between the two of us.

Aya took a picture and tried to fly away, but it was fruitless. I had already stopped my heart, and materialized behind her with a flash of light. The last thing she saw was my sword going into her chest, before she too turned to ashes from the sheer heat of the sword's solar power, her camera clattering to the ground below.

I then felt a powerful presence nearing this place, and chose to flee, forgetting about the camera entirely. This was no time to be reckless.

It was time to become a guardian again.

* * *

**Yes, I do know what happened between Shaxx and Mara, but it is with a reason. I would've posted the other chapters, but I went and did some research for the responses to the reviews. Read the final one at your own will, but note that this might ruin the story for you.**

**TheRealCactoos:So we got a rambunctious warlock, a hunter who ends up as a shikigami, and a Titan.**

**I'd say a PTSD warlock with trust issues(Being trapped in a Vex future for X decades would do that to you, and you didn't question why he was abandoned), a lonely titan who loves fighting a little too much, and a hunter who's pretty much who'd you'd expect a hunter to be.**

**ThePolishSausageRoaster & Guest 2:Light & Darkness isn't magic, go check up on the reddit link.**

**I believe we got into a misunderstanding here. I didn't say the Light(acasual) and Darkness(paracasual) were like magic forces, I had even put air quotes around the word(magic) for the warlock chapter, as to have the characters express the same doubt on it. I was intending to imply Danmaku(Touhou's magic) is an energy source just like Light and Dark, which they very much are in the game as we harness & obtain light in a variety of ways, as well as the forces of Darkness. Like I said though, I could be wrong on Danmaku, mostly new to Touhou after all.**

**I consider the two energy sources, because one has a very well known acasual source that started the Golden Age in Destiny, while the paracasual is referenced as neutrino particles in The Pyramidion Strike, as I also say to the final response here. They must be such, as the Traveler's light weakens in certain times and places, like Vault Of Glass or Crota's End, places with extreme Darkness. It is also implied with the various strikes that this is the case, especially with the Pyramidian strike.**

**Before we get into the final response, I'd like to say that if anyone wants to bring something important to my attention that's breaking Destiny canon, they must make an account and PM me. I wanna keep it clean here and actually focus on the story itself. I'm only doing this one last time to clear up any misinformation here(as well as some other bits that may pop up since they could also be raised). Feel free to skip this if you are a Touhou fan who wants to learn the Destiny universe through the characters.**

**Guest:You are taking gameplay for lore. (It is larger than this, but is the TL;DR and his words.)**

**On the contrary, no, I'm going off of both, as the story is entwined between both. Your example of Savin(not Saven), and spamming supers are vastly incorrect. I concede on you saying that they can fly, but nowhere does it state it is forever, and is only done in-game with the attunement of sky(top tree Dawnblade). Oh, and the blackhole you mentioned? Nova bomb. Which is this from the grimoire:**

"Channel the Traveler's Light into a bolt of energy with the power of a collapsing star. The devastating Nova Bomb scours the battlefield with ethereal fire - but be careful in its use. It takes precious moments to summon, and it must be aimed precisely to avoid obstacles."

**What Savin did was little more than a Nova Bomb, as that's what blackhole is, a collapsing star. He didn't create something that could swallow up Earth within an hour(Forgetting Graviton Lance btw, the one with mini blackhole bullets?). You are over-exaggerating a detail of which isn't what it looks like at all, especially since Mara didn't care too much for Savin's display, and got rid of him after he proved to be too much of an annoyance and consumptive of resources. The only reason she kept him around was for study, due to Riven salivating in his presence.**

**There's also the D1 grimoire regarding Osiris and super duration, which states that he was in a constant radiance once. This implies that all supers(which are a canon thing, not a gameplay thing) aren't forever since Osiris' radiance was labeled constant, when every other mentioned use wasn't, and still require a recharge or some semblance of potency levels. And even if they were forever, and we could teleport like the Vex as you imply, we would not need ships or guns, like every guardian in the lore has and uses everywhere, including Ikora, Saint-14, Osiris, Zavala, Cayde, Lord Shaxx, Iron Lords, Ana Bray, etc because there are endless examples of veteran and young guardians owning and using guns over spamming their abilities in the lore, cutscenes, and gameplay.**

**You might point out the Vanguard here, despite me mentioning Osiris. As it is stated with Nova Bomb being a matter of practice in the lore, that means that Light can be like a muscle when using internal light storages, hence why they spam nova bombs and bubbles without exotics. Our guardian had only been recently reborn, 5 years old now as confirmed by Bungie themselves(Taken War is canonically stated to be 2 years before Red War, and is why we need exotics to have better bang to our supers. As to why Daishin isn't spamming, he was trapped with limited light reserves in the Vault Of Glass. Nobody is going to waste energy when they know they can't get out.**

**You may also attempt to say that guardians can easily make it to veteran level with the power you mentioned. The very first thing you see in D1 vanilla quest dialogue that was added in the TTK(not voiced dialogue meaning you read it in-game before accepting the reward) after reaching lvl 4, is them being impressed with how long you survived, stating that not many make it as long as you did.**

**Zavala mentions he goes to bury every new Titan at the wall when they die, Ikora says she's seen lights flair to life only to just as quickly die out, and Cayde mentions how glad he was to not be surprised at the fact you're alive. If you don't believe me on any of it, simply reach that level on any class with a new character in D1, it takes 10 or so minutes at most to get there.**

**Furthermore, the quest still proved that you can obtain forms of light with physical means. You had to get that conductor to unlock your powers, you had to activate a vex forge to summon forth the Hammer of Sol through a ball of fire, and you even get relics from public events in vanilla D2, where you have to return them to their former glory to get a subclass. Those of which is the melted hammer, battered gauntlet, melted handcannon, fractured arrow, cracked talisman and warped armlet. You still needed items for the most part to gain usage of the Traveler's other powers, and if you never got them, you'd never have stormcaller, sunbreaker, and nightstalker. Especially Sunbreaker, as the people who knew how to get summoned had left the Last City.**

**The Traveler and Vex themselves had been allowing us to see into the future, not on our own. It hadn't been happening before-hand for us beyond Vex tech when it was asleep, as it wasn't stated anywhere in D1 or the events before it during the time it was dormant until D2. Don't take things out of context, and expect me to buy into it.**

**If you're going to come at a writer on the lore, much less one looking to add to a mostly unknown crossover section who both sides most likely know little of each other(going off on the lack of crossovers I see here), don't do it with only a fraction of knowledge as to the big picture(Exception being you Touhou fans, I'm waiting for your roasts on my lack of touhou knowledge with open arms as I'm kinda new to you guys).**

**Do it with more than just Forsaken knowledge. Forsaken(when Savin was added) had never been the only entry on Light and Dark itself. Because even if half of the things you were saying was actually true in Destiny, one would have to wonder how the heck did it turn out that way in Destiny 1 and 2(down to one city and a bunch of unprotected villages mind you), especially when all it takes is somebody making an actual blackhole to destroy the enemy races and planets themselves, as black holes the size of even a penny would be the equivalent of the moon's mass, and would absorb a planet within an hour.**

**TL;DR:Saying the gameplay was dumbed down due to lore incompatibility, goes against literally every bit of logic in Destiny 1 and 2, as humanity would have to try really hard to get pinned into a corner during the Golden Age like they are now, as well as guardians dying very early on with such powers to enemies like the Fallen. We wouldn't even need guns or ships if we could do anything you said on a constant, easily accessible basis like you imply.**

**I'm very sorry for the Touhou readers that had to deal with this, but it needed to be said. I'll come up with the rest of the chapters this week for certain, I just had too much fun writing this one, and wanted to post it early. Have a good Saturday!**


	5. Don't Know What's Around Me

I stopped by Remilia's place first things first, a small thing Yukari had never figured out that I was doing. While I knew Gensokyo's lands, a hunter doesn't dare waste an advantage he can get when it presents itself, and while they did have a rivalry between them, Remilia was always a nice sort. I figured before I went to look, she could give me pointers… and by pointers, I meant read fate.

And so after a bit of driving on my sparrow, that's exactly where I found myself, climbing up on the walls of the mansion to get to Remilia's room after having snuck past Meiling. Rude? Yes. Was it easier than actually going inside the place and perhaps having to traverse whole hour long hallways due to Sakuya's broken abilities? Yes. Did I even care if it was rude anyhow? Ehhh… maybe. I do need some answers from her after all.

I knocked on the window to Remilia's room, the vampire thankfully being there to answer as she opened the window. She smiled down at me, as I was hanging from the windowsill. "Come for answers again, have you Kalmin?"

"You betcha." I said with a grunt, as I pulled myself into the room, Remilia stepping aside for me as I landed on the floor. "And I haven't forgotten the price. Vergil?"

"One sudden unexplained death coming right up." Vergil announced as he materialized, stopping my brain and causing me to fall to the ground dead. A few seconds later, Vergil resurrected me in a new body that he materialized from air.

Remilia smiled at my corpse as she bit into a blood vessel, a large jar appearing at her side while she did so, no doubt put there by Sakuya, that time-abusing maid. She lets the blood flow into the jug, tasting it a bit before she looks to me. "Y'know, you have to tell me your recipe to this some time soon. Some days your type B blood is spicy, other times it tastes like soda or a smoothie. It's almost like you were meant to be a walking vending machine for vampires."

"Secret recipe Remi." I stated with a smug smile, knowing my void light had given it a smoothie feel. "Maybe when the whole biz between you and Yukari is over, I'll tell ya."

She let a 'tch!' out at that, a frown on her face. "Never gonna give it up against that gap hag." She then put an arm on her thigh with a renewed smile as my corpse's blood went into the jug. "So, what do you want to know?"

"The one Yukari brought here, robed guy who I bet probably called you a dog." I said, as I leaned next to the open window. "Where is he?"

"Looking to fix her mistakes while still making it look like it happened on its own." She stated with a grin. "Clever of her. But I think we both know that she made a mistake in sending you to go there instead of gapping you."

"Less fixing her mistakes, and more stopping it before it gets worse." I bluntly stated.

Remilia raised an eyebrow at that, smile disappearing. "Now, I don't think I'd want my human to be permanently dead…"

"Just trust me on this. That robed guy?" I said while juggling a trio of flaming knives to remind her of what I was. "Like me, but not worth the effort. He's most likely a fanatic of the god I had left behind long ago."

"I see…" Remi stated with a nod. "So he would be hostile to us all for a while."

"More like forever. And if he's given a chance to adapt, who knows what might happen?" I reasoned, before sitting on the windowsill. "Look, I know the promise of a personal soda or smoothie machine sounds good. But if he learns magic, who knows how many youkai he'll kill before we put a stop to him? Who knows if he's like Osiris, where he can use projections to kill hundreds of youkai at once in different areas?"

Remilia closes her eyes and hummed in thought at that. "...You make a fair point." She said with a nod, as she then opened them. "Try the Forest. He's probably lost in there."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "You're not telling me?"

"It'd ruin the hunt for you, hunter." She said with a smirk. "And honestly, I can't be troubled to get involved in this. I'm fairly confident that this guardian will not cause much damage to Gensokyo."

I gritted my teeth at that, but held back my words. There was nothing I could say; I didn't know what the hell light is or does. Defy fate? Yeah, with Vex time portals that got opened up by guardians. Defy the Hive's logic? We just turned things into bombs, and stabbed a knight with his own sword. SIVA? It blew itself up after we hacked it. There was never any concrete proof of us definitely needing light to kill the baddies. It allowed us to do crazy things, yeah, but every kill had been through guns and turning the enemies' tech against themselves.

"Fine," I said, giving in. "Have it your way. But if something bad happens, I'm withholding your special blood drinks for an indefinite time."

She laughed at that. "Human, I did not live thousands of years thinking only of bread and butter. I have full confidence that he is either dead or lost."

I didn't respond to that. I simply leapt out the window, continuing to Youkai Mountain and heading into the Forest, as per her suggestion. I didn't even bother to look at the mountain peak, of which had a certain ice fairy flying away from it.

* * *

I wandered the forest with my shadowshots readied in case I spotted an enemy or the warlock. Vergil was at my side illuminating this dark, easy to ambush. My eyes scanned the whole area with the eyes of a predator, trepidation in my heart as I walked.

"Don't you think you're overreacting to this?" Vergil spoke as he and I crept through the forest. "I mean, I have to be with Remi here. Warlocks are the science guys aren't they? Surely he'd grub for all the information before killing someone?"

"Ghost, we had the presence of a legitimate god over humanity. Don't you remember the Cult Of Osiris?" I shot back. Ghost made to speak, but I stopped him. "Yes, I know he ain't one, and he was just really smart. But despite the fact his cult put him on the side of the Traveler, there was still conflict."

"That was ages ago though."

"Doesn't mean things changed." I said with a firm tone in my voice. "Time never guaranteed that change had to happen. It was always 'can change'."

"It still doesn't really excuse the hostility." Vergil shot back. "Don't tell me you forgot Ikora?"

I grit my teeth at that. "This guardian isn't like her."

"But you never met them. Maybe the ghost is the one leading the guardian."

"Awfully hypocritical of you, ain't it Vergil?"

"Now you know I encouraged-"

Our argument was cut off by a noise in the woods. A distant giggle within the darkness.

The cursed T-poser.

I couldn't help but chuckle at what was about to unfold, as I decided to see what she was up to, and warn her of the warlock.

After following the giggles through foliage and several trees, I eventually encountered a large orb of darkness that seemed to fizzle, only barely able to fully see the girl inside.

She seemed to take note of the light from my ghost, and turned to me with a smile. "Kalmin!"

"Rumia, the cursed T-poser of the darkness!" I said with my best Variks impression, a wide grin as I held out my hand to shake hers. "How you doing?"

Rumia pouted at that. "Kal, you know I can-"

"Hey, it's the position I keep catching you in." I shot back with a smirk.

She sighed, knowing she couldn't refute that. "So what are you doing here? Off playing hide and seek with Chen?"

"I'd be wearing chroma for that due to how dark it is." I then leaned towards her. "Seen a robed guy around? He's a troublemaker."

She hummed in thought, putting a finger on her chin. "...I think I saw Cirno walking with one guy like that up to the Moriya Shrine. Kinda hard to tell though, due to the whole darkness thing."

I hummed in thought at that. "You know, you never told me why you're sensitive to light. You're like Remi?"

"Nope." She said with a a grin. "Learning how to use my abilities caused me to get photophobia. Very light though."

"On the subject of that, there are some genetic diseases." Vergil added. "Like-"

"Bit too much information Verg." I interrupted, as to continue the questioning. "Seen any bodies recently?"

She shook her head. "I thought I smelled something burning earlier, but I didn't see anything. Could be Mokou."

I nodded at that. "Right, well I'd like to stay and chat, but I got somebody to go after."

She smiled. "I'll make sure I'll stall him and-"

"No." I stopped her, causing her to frown in confusion. "This guy is more than a civilian, trust me. You'd just get yourself killed."

"Is something off today Kalmin?"

I didn't respond to that, and just kept moving, leaving Rumia to watch me leave in both confusion and worry.

* * *

I walked out of the forest to find molten slag a little ways away from me. Without a word even needing to be said, Vergil uncloaked and scanned it for a moment.

"This camera looks as if it was thrown inside the lava of Mercury for a second." Vergil announced. "There are traces of the Traveler's energy in the remains, powerful and old. We've definitely got a warlock."

"We're on the trail then." I kept walking. "Track the heat signature ghost."

We went down the trail, continuing on our goal of hunting the Warlock down and encountering few fairies along the .

We walked along the trail, taking small shortcuts as we predicted the next area the Warlock would be at. Of course this would inevitably go through places that was not the main trail, and within a few moments…

"Hey!"

I smiled as I threw a smoke grenade and turned invisible. I looked to the newcomer. She wore red eyes and wavy waist-length grey hair that falls down naturally in a somewhat ragged fashion. She also had blue detached sleeves and a knee-length three colored dress, resembling a one-shoulder tunic, that wraps over her left shoulder yet still leaves both shoulders bare, her dress has three color regions - yellow/gold on top, orange in the middle, and red on the bottom, all divided in a nonparallel manner by ragged white trim. The bottom is perforated with two and a half staggered rings of diamond-shaped holes and her detached sleeves bear a similar design. She seemed irritated at me, holding a cleaver with a red bow on it.

"Ah! Creeper!" I over dramatically exclaimed as I then went invisible, giggling all the while.

That ticked her as I knew it would, as she kept swinging at the air, each pause enunciated by a missed swing. "Would, you, stop, coming, here?!"

"Awww, but I didn't get to say hello…" I said with a mock frown as I uncloaked, jumping onto a tree as I turned to face her with a grin.

She didn't like that. She ran up and started chopping the tree down, trying to slash me down. I just kept jumping from tree to tree, idly wasting her time. I could afford this, after all. There'd be no way Chen could possibly lose to some fanatical idiot that'd probably waste his time doing speeches. Warlocks are pretty much like Ikora and Zavala put into one-

Something inside of me suddenly snapped. Like the sudden sense of apathy that comes after ecstasy, I felt an indescribable chill rush through me, before a searing pain pierced my whole body. I fell to the ground, limbs shaking as I tried to push on through the throbbing pain. Vergil went to my side immediately, trying to figure out what was happening as I spasmed on the ground. The yamanba that I was toying with stopped to see why I suddenly just went limp on and fell, more out of curiosity than a desire to kill.

Then nothing more came but a dull pain. And then my instincts kicked in.

I went off sprinting to my right as soon as I got up, dashing through the trees and foliage. I didn't have to know what I felt at that moment. I no longer cared about the trail, nor knew where I was heading. All I knew was that I needed to see her.

I needed to see Chen.

I startled various fairies with my sudden approach, all shocked at me rushing out of nowhere. I paid no attention to them, and simply shoved them to the side. I wasn't going to stop for anything.

I saw Ran speed past me. She had to have sensed it too, Chen was hers as I was Chen's.

"Large amounts of solar light present up ahead." Vergil reported. "Kal, I-"

I came upon the area I felt like I was heading to. "Chen?! Cat where the heck are you, this ain't funny!"

I looked to Ran, who was unresponsive as I scanned the area. There was some ash about the place, a camera on the ground as a robed body laid on the ground before me.

The Warlock.

I pointed my weapon at him as I cautiously neared in case he was faking death or unconsciousness. The body itself seemed to be looking at a camera, which had a crack on its lens. It too was covered in ash, as were some of the trees

I picked up the camera, inspecting it for footage. Thankfully, a few pictures were taken at the time, allowing me to get a good look of what happened.

The first photo consisted of the warlock jumping off a cliff, while the photographer in question was hiding in some bushes. The second photo consisted of the Warlock sliding down to a red and green blot on the screen.

_No…_

I continued onto the next photo, my suspicions being all but confirmed as I saw what the Warlock was after. I saw in the next one that he cut her clean in half, her watching the sword come through her. The final one showed the reporter, Aya Shameiru, staring into the camera with the same sword in her chest, as she turned into ash.

Ran had then turned to me, the cat's hat in her hands as she looked to one of the warlock's corpses with a cold look in her eyes. "Kalmin… did that man?"

"He isn't dead yet." I growled out as solar energy raged in my hands with intense flames. I threw the camera aside as I went to his corpse, my knife in hand. As soon as I was a foot away; I let myself loose.

I dove into the warlock with a knife so hot, it exploded into flames upon impact, setting him on fire. I stabbed him again and again, leaving only sizzling, burning flesh behind with each strike, until eventually, he too was nothing but ash. I then let out a cry of fury and grief into the heavens above, standing on my knees as I did so, before getting off.

"We're wasting time." I holster my weapon, Boltcaster. "This was but a vessel of him. He's already killed several by now. We need to make him **pay.**"

"Kalmin." She tried to start in a soothing tone, even as she barely held back her own rage. "You don't have to do this. You know that-"

"I know what I'm getting into, Ran." I spoke as I walked."But this? This is personal. He's going for all of us, and he's fully capable of doing so. And I won't risk your life in this. I'm shooting him down myself."

With that said, I left Ran alone. I had no interest in replacing her position as Shikigami. Not yet.

First, I needed to figure out where he'd head next. So I can trap him.

* * *

**AN:**

**Sorry for the long wait all. Multiple things popped up in my face when I tried to get the set of chapters done.**

**1\. California fire grazing my house.**

**2\. Math class arrived, algebra.**

**3\. General family issues.**

**4\. And having to help out other writers. (Being part of Fireteam Nero, helping the author of Dark Son)**

**5\. As well as working on a RWBY and GoT inspired show. It has plenty of concept art, so I feel obligated to work on it more often than usual.**

**Also before we get into this, I noticed the same guest who made the review on chapter 3 thought Dai's body burned up on its own… did you not catch the bit where he threw a solar grenade at his own corpse? **

**Also 'light = magic' was simply a miscommunication, I never said as fact that was the case.**

**Guest:Are guardians really unable to have sex? They should have some love too!**

**Guardians aren't actually physically unable to(shaxx x Mara, the vow bow declaring shaxx is bi, Ana Bray), but I wanted to play around with the idea here, hence why I used it for the Warlock. Rest assured, this bit is headcannon for now that'll be explained away later. I'll give them the 'exotic monkey dance emote' later, but I won't show it in the story. This is T rated after all, so mainly just T rated humor, plus lemon isn't allowed and I cannot write it myself.**

**Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can get back to doing this at my usual pacing of week per update, but this next semester is over twenty units so that's unlikely. Until then, I hope you all have a good day!**


End file.
